Beading: Jewelry Making Parties Have Unlimited Income Potential

Beading is a form of jewelry making that initially involved making necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. However, the fascination with beads and the limitless possibilities for adornment and gift giving has evolved into a serious business for many creative and industrious people.

Beading has been around for many years, and many little girls have held a fascination with stringing together colorful beads to wear around their necks and on their wrists. Today, however, serious beading uses kits and patterns and is limited only by the imagination. From necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, beading now also includes watchbands, embroidery, and adornment pieces of incredible beauty and complexity. In other words, the possibilities are unlimited for beaded jewelry pieces, and profitable beading businesses have also emerged.

Today, the beads for this art form are more than little plastic balls on a cloth string. They are now made from numerous materials, including crystal, seeds, gold filled metals, stone, clay, cubic zirconia, mother of pearl, gemstone and semi-precious stone, magnets, glass, sterling silver, and wood. There are also designer and ethnic beads in various shapes, sizes, colors, and color combinations.

In 2001, friends Lesa Shepherd and Cindi Swett took beading to a whole new level by starting a direct sales business they named Bead Retreat, based in Newport News, Virginia. As a result of this and other endeavors, beading is now recognized not only as a social event for friends and family, but as a flexible career with unlimited earning potential.

Ms. Shepherd and Ms. Swett both enjoyed beading for their own reasons, but when more and more people asked them how to bead, Lesa and Cindi put their heads together and developed their company, Bead Retreat. Since then, the company has grown from a fun gathering of friends to a direct sales company that assists others host beading parties and earn an income.