The Bead Choice

The Bead Choice

Written by Beth Wade Friday, 07 September 2007

Electrician’s bet on bead craft becomes business

A necklace with pearls, Swarovski crystals or genuine turquoise could be expensive from a high-end shop or catalog. Brandon Turner says he can make something similar and sell it at a much lower cost.

With wholesale beads and gems, a little bit of artistic ingenuity and a couple of hours, Turner creates and sells handcrafted jewelry, but that is only a fraction of his business.

“I’m not a hippy sitting on the [Austin] drag, selling $10 necklaces strung on fishing line,” Turner said. “You think you can go down there and find something like this, but you can’t go to the drag and buy anything similar.”

Turner is the co-owner of Pflugerville’s only bead shop. The Bead Choice is home to a wide variety of wholesale beads, sold by the strand, along with tools and accessories for crafting personal pieces.

Most of Turner’s jewelry is one of a kind and made with wholesale beads, which allows for the low cost. He once had dreams of selling his goods at market to retailers, but decided to keep the business small for quality control.

“If I did hit something big, how do you produce that many orders? It can get pretty tedious,” Turner said. “I like making jewelry because I can keep creating stuff and not have to make anything redundant.”

While most of his business comes from walk-in customers, he is developing his Web site to be a faster, more user-friendly sales tool in hopes of creating a bigger Internet presence, he said. His goal is to ship complete orders from the Web site.

“I’ve been able to complete almost 1,000 orders in the past year, with no back orders,” he said,

Turner has prior experience working in a bead shop in Austin, but before that was an electrician. In his early jewelry-making days, he taught himself and used his electrician tools to create his art.

“I tell people to try not to learn bad habits, but the best way to learn is by yourself,” he said. “Someone can show you a technique and you can take it from there and make it your own.”

Turner closes early on Saturdays at 3 p.m. and holds private parties and lessons in his shop until 5 p.m. During that time, customers can use his tools and string and bring in their own beads or purchase items at a 20 percent discount to create their own pieces.

Bead Specialties

• African Trade Beads – Also known as money beads. Used for trade or barter in Africa. $5.50-$13.99 per strand
• Bali beads – Hand-crafted silver beads from Bali, Indonesia. $2.99-$7.99 per pack
• Turquoise – The name means “Turkish stone” after the trade routes, which passed through Turkey. $7.99-$49.99 per strand

The Bead Choice, 1101 W. Pecan St., Ste. 3, Pflugerville, TX 78660, 512-989-1110 • www.thebeadchoice.com