Fire Mountain Gems
Fire Mountain Gems and Beads is, in a sense, the McMaster Carr of the jewelry world. The company’s 400-plus page print catalog, with its to-scale photos of beads, gems, clasps and findings (roughly, the jewelry-making hardware), rivals any catalog in terms of introducing creative possibilities, and enticing you to buy stuff. For me, having the physical catalog makes navigating the extensive website easier.
If you’re interested in making bead jewelry, I’d recommend taking a beginner’s class at a local bead store to get started and gain a basic familiarity with the tools. I took a wire wrap class at a local shop and then had a foundation from which I was able to learn knotting and stringing pearls watching Fire Mountain’s instructional videos.
One of my favorite aspects of having even a basic ability to make jewelry is that I’m always able to create a last-minute gift, at least for friends whose taste is similar to mine. I keep a small stash of beads and findings around, and then can put together a pair of earrings in 10 minutes—a personal, homemade gift I didn’t have to go to the store to buy.
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A cool tool is anything useful that is superior to comparable items. If you think this tool is inferior suggest a better one. You are welcome to insult a tool, but comments containing insults to individual people will be deleted. Corrections of fact are always welcomed, if stated politely. Recommendations of better tools are dearly wanted and may be elevated to the front page.
SomeWhiteGuy
My sister uses this site for all of her bead-searching needs. She's on dialysis for 6 hours at a time, so she wanted a hobby that would be quiet, but rewarding. She found Fire Mountain and has loved them ever since. Great company with a lot of tools to get a beginner started, but enough bead selection to keep you coming back.
Chris
I feel like this awesome blog might have missed the mark on this one... What happened to gadgets and tools and manly stuff? Not that there's anything WRONG with beads, but how about some hatchets and grappling hooks? Check this out, for instance: http://www.countycomm.com/hook.htm
cooltoolsfan
So, seriously..when did this blog stop being about "Cool Tools" and start being about random crap like jewelry beads? This is almost as bad as "The Book of Gensis, Illustrated" post. or the random science fiction book reviews..cmon people. I'm about to stop reading this site.
The_other_Bill
Knife knife screwdriver knife awl knife knife knife screwdriver level. Boring.
I like the beads thing. I can forward this link to my sister-in-law who loves this sort of stuff. Thanks for the, as always, useful post.
Time to go bake some no-knead bread.
P.S. Art is useful.
elon
A quick reminder. Profanity isn't accepted here and will be edited out of the comments, as was just the case. On Cool Tools we post reviews from reader submissions, and for a refresher on our encompassing interpretation of "tool," you can read this:
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/about.php
Anyone who'd like to influence the content of this site is encouraged to submit a tool recommendation through this link:
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/submittool.php
or you can e-mail me directly elon {at} schoenholz dot com
-es
Kim
Also check out http://www.shipwreckbeads.com/
I am not really into beading, but I have friends who really are. Some of them live in the central valley of California and head north on long weekends to go bead shopping. They pass through the Fire Mountain Gems area, to go another 350+ miles to Shipwreck Beads.
I can't say one is better than the other, and am sure both are great resources, but Shipwreck's catalog is over 1000 pages.
mata
Fire Mountain used to have a store in Altadena, CA that I made a point to visit every year when I visited my old roommate there. I was *so* unhappy when I found they were gone. The catalog is great, but I really miss being able to examine the stones and wander among them getting ideas.
Ally
Fire Mountain's catalog is great. As an avid catalog reader (seriously, I get tons of them daily) this one's fun to flip through. they've got all kinds of stuff. As an artist/crafter, their stuff is great.
Erik
Another supplier is http://www.rings-things.com/ Russ is pretty picky and really tries to only sell quality materials that he would use himself (recovering jeweler that he is)
"Rings & Things specializes in reliable jewelry-making parts. Shop online, order toll-free or visit our showroom for over 18,000 wholesale beads, findings & other jewelry-making supplies."
(the owner is an old friend)
Russ Nobbs
Thanks, Erik, for the kind words and the good plug for Rings & Things in this thread about my biggest competitor.
But, I have to ask, which "Erik" are you? As I search memory I realize I know quit a few Erik's with a "k", several in the bead and jewelry business, several from other aspects of my long life. Drop me a line so I can thank you in person. Try my hotmail, gmail, beading forums or even facebook connections.
BTW, Fire Mountain is a great resource for beaders. I like to think Rings & Things sells better quality goods or offers several qualities when that is possible. In many cases we all buy from the same bead, findings and cord manufacturers, both domestic and overseas. It's such an interesting business, always new things to learn!
jca
Yeah, like fan belt tensioners
Owen
As a long time reader (though NOT much of a commenter) I would like to saythat this was a great post - I look for VARIETY from Cool Tools - just like I did from the WEC back in the day.
Michael
Hey love the blog (landed first on the cool mini saws) and came across this post on beads and jewelry making. I had to do some research recently and seems that Firemountain, Shipwreckbeads have some cool things and wanted to add a site called http://www.beadcity.com for jewelry making supplies.
Tamdoll
Funny how I love FireMountain Gems AND I just received my order from McMaster (some vials that I want to use in a display). Glad I found your site, I think there's a lot here that I'm going to like.
M.E.
It really does sound like the early complaints about this post translate as, "Ewwww, you put up GIRL INFO on my MAN SITE!" Come on, guys, complaining about girl cooties is just kind of silly.