A Little About BEADS

The Bead Store or 'BEADS', as we are known in surrounding areas, has grown from a small, weekend trade days adventure to our store front in Forney, Texas.  The business is owned by Nancy Loughmiller and supported by yours truly, Jim.

We started buying beads and making fashion jewelry in 2005.  Our designs were a combination of gemstones and sterling silver findings.  We thought our prices were well below that of other high end fashions, but we quickly discovered very few patrons cared 'what' the designs were made of; they simply wanted a certain 'look' and our plans quickly came to a disappointing halt.  

We regrouped and pursued lesser expensive designs that had 'that look'.  We also offered a line of .925 silver chains, pendants and earrings, and choice accessories like purses and belts.  The trade days market became saturated with everything we were doing and as we became more frustrated, we decided to call it quits.  Then, by chance, we were introduced to a family in the import/wholesale business who shared with us two philosophies:  One, whatever you do in business, buy low, sell low, sell volume.  And two, whether it involves rocks, wood, bone, leather or beads, people have been making jewelry for 10,000 years and it is unlikely they will ever stop.  Solution: buy and sell beads and findings.  Fortunately, our friend happen to be in that business, so there you go and that is where we are today.

We continued to do trade shows with heavy concentration on beads and findings and we grew.  After a couple of years, we found that steel grids and hooks to hang our wares, and boxes of rocks [if you will], were heavy and we were not getting any younger.  It was taking us 12 hours to set up at each show and we were often the last to leave on Sunday evening.  Answer:  storefront - and here we are in Forney, Texas.