BeadCrate Subscription Box Review – October 2019

BeadCrate is a monthly subscription box for beading enthusiasts. Choose from “The Enthusiast” for $18.99 a month or “The Collector” for $35 a month. You can also buy a single box to see if this subscription is for you.

This is a review of “The Enthusiast,” which is $18.99/month + $5 shipping.

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

About BeadCrate

The Subscription Box: BeadCrate

The Cost: $18.99 a month + $5 shipping. 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: The US (free for “The Collector,” $5 for “The Enthusiast”)

BeadCrate October 2019 “Bump in the Night” Review

BeadCrate is great for stash-building if you are into seed beads and Czech glass, and you’ll also usually get some useful supplies:

This letter/information sheet accompanied the shipment. This month has a lot of darker colors that seem appropriate as it's (finally) getting colder around here.

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!

13 x 11 mm Luster Opaque White Ghostly Faces (Czech glass, 3)

I thought these were some kind of imitation baroque pearls at first, and they still kind of look like that to me even after I read the description. In general I am creeped out by faces in jewelry but these don't bother me the way some do, probably because they are more subtle than a lot of face beads. I think these might make good earrings or else they would work well to either side of a focal bead.

3 mm Montana Blue AB Druks (Czech glass, 50)

3 mm druks (pressed rounds) are handy to have around. They go in a lot of patterns (basically anything that calls for a 3 mm firepolished bead, bicone, etc. will work with them) but they are also good for stringing projects, right-angle weave, and lots of other stitches. These match up pretty well with the teardrops below, as well.

Tierracast 24 x 28 mm Oxidized Brass Ghost Charm (USA pewter, 1)

BeadCrate always seems to provide a Halloween-themed charm at this time of year and this is one of my favorites. (The Halloween stuff I like definitely tends to be on the "cute" side rather than the "creepy" side.) I may go looking for more of these.

6 x 9 mm Montana Blue Tear Drops (Czech glass, 25)

You receive a lot of tear drop beads in this subscription but I find that I don't use them super often so I challenged myself this month. A couple of them ended up as earring dangles but I think I may make a netted necklace to use the rest.

1 mm 20 lb Test Hemp Cord (30 ft)

You'll often get one type of supply item. We've received needles, sorting trays, stringing material, and all kinds of other items. Anyway, I've been meaning to get back into macramé and this will be good for practice.

2 mm Firepolished Rounds in Metallic Grenadine (Czech glass, 50)

Grenadine is one of those colors that I hoarded (OK, so I hoarded a lot of shiny reds). So I have a lot of matching beads in my stash. But, I did use some of these in a pair of earrings, which you can see below.

Toho 11/0 Opaque Frosted Jet (Japanese glass, 2.5" tube)

You'll pretty much always get some seed beads in this subscription, usually size 11/0 (occasionally 8/0 instead). This is a super useful color to have on hand. I used some of these in my earrings as well.

7 mm Matubo Haunted Mix Ginkos (Czech glass, 20)

These colors are called "backlit matte petroleum" and "frosted opaque jet." Ginko beads seem to have taken off better than some of the other new shapes out there, or else they are being heavily promoted, so I have quite a few already, but I don't think in either of these colors. Anyway, because of all the promotion, there are a lot of patterns. I have one pattern my table right now that came free with some Etsy order that uses small numbers of several different colors of ginko beads that would be great for these (it's some earrings).

6 mm Firepolished Rounds in Sueded Gold Black Diamond (Czech glass, 50)

Black diamond shows up a lot in this box but that just makes it easier to coordinate, and I do note that each black diamond bead type had a different finish. I like the sueded gold here; it's subtle but pretty. 6mm firepolished rounds are handy to have around for patterns and I already have a lot of other black diamond beads that will go with these.

8 mm Black Diamond Stars (Czech glass, 25)

There was a period of time, early in my beading life, when I bought SO MANY stars. I really need to come up with a project that uses them. I may try to work them into some bead embroidery, which is something I want to try out one of these days.

3 mm Luster Iris Opaque Beige Firepolished Rounds (Czech glass, 50)

This is another nice, neutral color that will go with a lot in my stash. I also used some of these in the earrings I made this month, which you can see below. (I was going for a graduated size thing and these went well with the seed beads and 2 mm beads for that reason.)

6 x 6 mm Matte Black Diamond Bicones (Czech glass, 50)

Here are some more black diamond beads (with a matte finish, here).  6 mm bicones can generally be used in patterns that call for firepolished rounds if you want a bit of a different look. I bought a bunch of other colors of these at some point in the last year so I may try to use them all together in a bracelet.

4 x 6 mm Siam Ruby Rice Beads (Czech glass, 50)

This color really appeals to me and I suspect it may mostly stand out because it is bright next to a bunch of darker beads. When I first started beading, nearly everything I bought was red, and I still have some of those beads, so I'll bet I can dig up some coordinating beads to go with these pretty quickly. These might also work down a central column in right angle weave.

Here are some earrings I made with four of the bead types from this box. (No pattern, I just made things up as I went along. The lighting was quite terrible in my house when I went to photograph these but it's been raining for three days with no sign of letting up so I don't have much hope of getting a better photo in a reasonable period of time.)

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 (I counted 13), you get about $1.84 per item. I did fall back on cubic right angle weave (as I often do) but I tried to at least make a different jewelry item using that stitch this month! Also I know I don't usually use the teardrops and we get a lot of them so I wanted to try to incorporate a few. I was a fan of this month's colors and the seed beads are particularly useful to have on hand (I have some Toho 11/0s in a non-matte black, but sometimes you want matte, you know?).

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, your subscription would start with the November box if you order by 11/1. Destash items and excess inventory (and sometimes whole boxes) may occasionally be available in the BeadCrate Etsy shop.

Value Breakdown: At $23.99 for this subscription (counting shipping), you are paying about $1.84 per item.

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

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

What did you think of the October 2019 BeadCrate? Do you subscribe to any beading or craft boxes?