BeadCrate Subscription Box Review – June 2017

BeadCrate is a monthly subscription box for beading enthusiasts. Choose from “The Enthusiast” for $15.99 a month or “The Collector” for $35 a month. You can also buy a single box to see if this subscription is for you.

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

This review is of The Enthusiast, $15.99 a month, box. 

The Subscription Box: BeadCrate

The Cost: “The Enthusiast” for $15.99 a month or "The Collector" for $35 a month. Save with longer subscriptions.

The Products: A selection of beads curated around a monthly theme (or beads that are just cool and random)

Ships to: U.S. (free for “The Collector” and $5 for “The Enthusiast”)

Check out all my BeadCrate reviews and the Craft Subscription Box Directory for more great beading, craft supply, and DIY project boxes.

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

This letter/information sheet accompanied the shipment. The theme this month was “Back to Basics.”

A note on prices: Items like this can come from a variety of different suppliers at many price points depending on how many you buy, etc. I couldn’t find a lot of these exact beads from common sources (e.g., Fire Mountain Gems) and it’s of questionable value to pick something similar because a slight difference in grading or size or material and you are looking at half or double the price (or an even greater difference). Even different colors of the same size and shape of glass beads are priced differently due to materials needed to make the colors!

12 mm Vertical Hole Aquamarine Butterflies (Czech glass, 10)

I have a lot of this color in my wardrobe. I might try making a charm bracelet with these to go with the one from Dollar Bead Box this month.

7 x 6 mm Sparkling Diamonds Multi-Mix (Czech glass, 25)

I love this mix of colors.  I haven’t used these yet but I am already wondering where I can get more of them.

Toho 3 mm Magatamas in Opaque Jet (Japanese glass, 16 g)

Magatamas are great for fringe, although that’s not how I used them (see below).  This is a color I didn’t already have that will go with a lot in my collection, too!

Toho 8/0 Transparent Capri Blue Seed Beads (Japanese glass, 16 g)

I recently sorted my bead collection and discovered I had lots of size 15, 11, 10, 7, and 6 seed beads (10 and 7 are a little odd to have, too), but almost no 8s.  So these are most welcome. 8s are just big enough to put a jump ring through which can be a great way to attach a clasp to a bracelet.

3 mm Firepolished Luster Iris Montana Blue Faceted Rounds (Czech glass, 50)

4 mm Firepolished Matte Jet Faceted Rounds (Czech glass, 50)

6 mm Firepolished Jet AB Faceted Rounds (Czech glass, 25)

I’m just going to talk about all of these together because I used almost every one of them in the necklace I made this month.  I really have very few of these left. These were all easy-to-use, basic shapes, and I kind of like the oil slick appearance you get from using them all together.

8 x 8 mm Aquamarine Hearts (Czech glass, 25)

These are pretty close to the butterflies in color and it might be fun to use them together. I have a lot of this color in my wardrobe including, importantly, several pairs of shoes.

4 mm Matte Montana Blue AB Rounds (Czech glass, 50)

I used a lot of these in my necklace, as well. 4 mm rounds are a handy shape to have around for some of the designs with the popular shaped Czech glass beads, too.

9 mm Flat Squares in Cobalt (Czech glass, 25)

I haven’t used these yet but I love them.  This is one of my favorite glass colors and I also have this thing for flat rounds, squares, and other shapes.  I know I will come up with something good for these pretty soon.

4 mm Matte Jet AB Rondelles (Czech glass, 100)

I used a lot of these in my necklace this month, as well.  I have a strong preference for more delicate pieces of jewelry so all the small beads served me well.

Here is a necklace I made this month. I used quite a lot of the beads and actually ran out of the 4mm black firepolished beads (had to cheat and use a 6 mm bicone in back where you can’t see it since I didn’t have any other 4mm firepolished beads in black). I bought the silver findings you see in front from Beadaholique.

Verdict: I did not calculate a value for BeadCrate, as explained above in my note about prices. If you divide the cost of the box plus shipping by the number of items, you get about $1.91 per item, which I think is reasonable (especially for a lot of Czech pressed glass shapes). The colors for this month appealed to me and I like that the theme is a bit different from some of the other bead boxes that are coming out right now.

The information booklet lists the total retail value at $27.44 and I think that is probably not too far off. The colors appealed to me this month, as well.

Please note that no directions are given and you have to supply your own needles, stringing materials, tools, and findings.

What did you think of the June 2017 BeadCrate? Do you subscribe to any beading or craft boxes?