Dollar Bead Bag is a smaller box from Dollar Bead Box, which delivers Czech fire-polished beads every month. During a given month, you can reorder your favorite items from the Dollar Bead shop for just $1. (This deal is only available to subscribers.)
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 Dollar Bead Bag, which is $8.00 a month.
About Dollar Bead Bag
The Subscription Box: Dollar Bead Bag
The Cost: $19.50 + $4.50 shipping for the Dollar Bead Box or $8 for the Dollar Bead Bag (4 strands of 3 mm Czech Fire Polish Beads and 4 strands of 4 mm Czech Fire Polish Beads in every bag); free shipping with 3- and 6-month subscriptions (plus get an additional discount on 6-month subscriptions)
The Products: Beads and beading-related items including but not limited to stringing materials, Swarovski crystals, vintage glass, freshwater pearls, buttons, and more.
Ships to: US
Dollar Bead Bag June 2018 Review
This is a subscription where you know what to expect every month, only the actual colors of the beads are unknown. The information card lists the color names for reordering purposes:
The bag included a list of items.
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!
3 mm Czech Firepolished Beads in (from top to bottom): Opaque Yellow Capri, Opaque White Half Silver, Beige Opal Half Copper, and Matte Crystal Copper AB
These are mostly neutral and would work in a variety of color schemes, except the opaque yellow capri, which is not neutral at all and which really called to me this month. Not simply because we also got that color in 4mm, but because I’ve been buying a lot of opaque yellows lately and I hadn’t seen this finish before. See how I used the yellow ones below.
4 mm Czech Firepolished Beads in (from top to bottom): Opaque Yellow Capri, Navy Vega Luster, Aqua Green Luster, and Crystal Silver Lined AB
I love it when we get at least one color in both sizes and I did use almost all of the opaque yellow capri beads in 4mm in a bracelet (see below). The other three colors, conveniently, match the color palette I’ve been collecting lately (especially the aqua green luster) and will come in handy as accent beads or in patterns.
Here is a bracelet I made using the opaque yellow capri beads in 3mm and 4mm. It is from the Runway pattern by Deb Roberti, which you can purchase here. (Her prices are reasonable compared to other bead pattern sellers on Etsy but she also has sales every now and then.) I chose the superduos in Metalust Hot Pink because there actually was a bit of hot pink showing in the coating on some of these. Then I chose some kind of plain seed beads because I didn’t need three bright colors at once.
Here is a close-up of the bracelet.
And here is what it looks like when it is not flat. I used a cheap magnetic clasp bought in bulk from Amazon. (They’re great for lightweight bracelets.)
Verdict: I did not calculate a value for the June 2018 Dollar Bead Bag, for reasons explained above. This is one of those subscriptions where you know in advance what you are going to get each month (only the color is a surprise). It works out to $1 per strand, and I think that is reasonable. These strands are a little shorter than what you’d get at Fire Mountain Gems, for example, but the prices are also lower. This is a good subscription if you are looking to build your stash.
Please note that no directions are given and you have to supply your own needles, stringing materials, tools, and findings.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, but if there is a color that appeals to you, if you become a Dollar Bead Bag member, you can order items from the past two Dollar Bead Bags from the Dollar Bead Box shop for $1 each (plus shipping).
Value Breakdown: At $8.00 for this subscription, you are paying $1 per strand.
Check out all of our Dollar Bead Box reviews and the Craft Subscription Box Directory!
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What did you think of the June 2018 Dollar Bead Bag? Do you subscribe to any DIY beading or craft boxes?
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