pugdog
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Mar 2, 2003, 6:59 AM
Views: 59795
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WELCOME: Notes on our Bead Exchange
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Our "Bead Exchange & Swap" is designed to renew your interest in beading.
It works very simply: Bring your tired, old, unloved beads, into our shop and exchange them for fresh, new exciting beads!
Your extras, left overs, and "boring" beads may be just the inspiration someone else needs to start beading again!
Originally, the Bead Exchange was an idea to encourage people to purchase enough material (dye lots) to finish a project. Any left overs could be brought back to the shop, and exchanged for new material. That way, a beader (and our customers) didn't get stuck with odds and ends and a "cash sink" that drained their enjoyment of beading. What was no longer useful or insipiring to them, might be exactly what someone else needed for their own project. A small membership fee and a few simple rules were enacted to prevent abuses.
As people came through the shop, we heard "But I have so many beads already" as people drooled over a new style or color. When we asked what they were making, or doing, with beads, often it was "I haven't done anything in awhile." What was happening, was thier "stash" of extras, impulse purchases "years ago" and the "cost" of these beads already in their possession was weighing down their creativity. It was preventing them from moving on, and doing something new. These "old" beads had moved from inspiration to being a source of stress.
So, we opened up the Bead Exchange to people who had not purchased their beads with us, again with a few rules to prevent abuses.
Beads go round and round, and change hands many times in their lives. Some have passed on through generations. But styles, tastes, and interests change across society, and in each individual. What you loved last year, or even yesterday, you may not even like today. Whatever you saw in the beads is still there, and potentially is the exact inspiration the next person that walks through our door needs!
There's no reason to let those beads wallow in the bottom of your closet, and depress you. Take them out, look at them (or not!), and trade them in for something new that may excite you. At the same time, you could be helping another beader, or beaders, to renew their own interest in beading.
How it works:
Bring your bead stash into the shop and we'll work out a trade. If there are other people interested in swapping, you can swap with them during the Tuesday Open Bead Exchange from 2-6pm. If you want to "cash out" of the beads for awhile, we can offer a store credit of up to 70% the estimated retail price of the beads as a Gift Certificate to spark someone elses interest in beading (or your own, a little down the road). Value must be at least $10, though.
Remember:
Beads were originally a source of currency, or "trade." There are even beads that are classified as "Trade Beads," which were used for currency, exchange of goods, or purchases of land (remember the story about Manhattan Island?). It was their beauty most often, not their original "cost", that determined their value in a trade. So, what you no longer see as beautiful, another person may view as an absolute treasure.
PUGDOG's Rock & Bead Shop
Pittsburgh, PA 15217
(This post was edited by pugdog on Jun 6, 2005, 6:05 PM)
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