Grrrrrr..... no good materials sold locally....

[Soviet Reunion]

I live in the most anti-hobby area it seems... I make jewelry and I can't find any GOOD materials anywhere! does anybody else have this same problem?

[rayzshea]

try looking in the yellow pages. what you are looking for may be hidden away in a business park. Otherwise the internet has more than you could ever need wink

[TheMiniBrain]

I get most of my good materials online.

[UtaNeko]

::nod nod:: Internet, and sometimes craft faires, but thats hit and miss.

[SanguisVitae]

Daarq

I live in the most anti-hobby area it seems... I make jewelry and I can't find any GOOD materials anywhere! does anybody else have this same problem?

ME! eek

It seems everything I like to work with or everything I need for a project or something I have to go to another town for. I hate it so much. Whats worse is there is a craft store but they barley carry a thing I use and don't even know what I am talking about half the time. Its one of those places that sell more kits of things and little RPG figures and model railroad stuff and mini packets of overpriced mixed shaped beads, but have no idea what Super Sculpy is even when I brought in an empty box, I've begged them to order me in a huge box of that stuff he just looks at me odd and and says; "We gots some FIMO, peoples seem to like that". gonk

[CateranLlama]

Ugh... *shiver* Fimo...

I was really bad off here, 'til they opened a little shop about an hour away. I was ordering EVERYTHING off the internet. Or substituting junk. Any good junk shops there? You can always take old jewelry apart for beads and clasps. There's just no sbustitute for Sculpy, but I know a woman who makes necklaces and bracelets out of old bicycle parts. I've had some sucsess with pulling electrical wiring/telephone wire scraps, (y'know, the big heavy ones with like fifty little copper wires inside?) apart and "doodling" with that.

What materials do you need? Maybe someone can come up with a decent substitute?

Yes, I love to scavenge... it makes for cool stories. "This used to be an earring and a scrap of telephone wire..."

[DecemberFlower]

I don't know what kind of jewlery you make... but maybe this site could be of assistance:

http://www.firemountaingems.com/default.asp

You can also have them send a massive catalog to your house, if the internet is inconvenient.

[ajazzydancer]

I make jewlery too, but i have ACMoore by me so its not too bad, though there are certain things im planning to get over the internet.

here's some sites:
http://www.riogrande.com
http://www.stoneagehardware.com
maybe that'll help.

[wickeddelight]

This problem drives me nuts too. I live in Pittsburgh, which is a fairly major city, but I can't find one blosk of soapstone in the whole area. xp

[OpalMagpie]

I wait until summer and the Garage Sale hunt like crazy, for some reason that seems to turn up a lot of such items. O.o

[Ditzo]

CateranLlama

You can always take old jewelry apart for beads and clasps.

I've never made any jewellry that doesn't incorporate some kind of recycled bits in it. It's partly because I buy most of my jewellry second hand anyway and then I get sad when it breaks, so I scrabble for the beads and re-use them in new patterns. ^-^ I remember a dilemma I had once where I only had a quarter of an hour break in work and my necklace split in the corridor and they were really nice prism beads and it was like 'o no, only quarter of an hour to pee, eat, etc. but ... must ... collect ... every bead!' rolleyes I need to learn to let go of things *Hoarder*

[damiel42]

wickeddelight

This problem drives me nuts too. I live in Pittsburgh, which is a fairly major city, but I can't find one blosk of soapstone in the whole area. xp

eek I'm in Pittsburgh...

There's a place in Harmony, about 30 minutes north of downtown, called the Applachian Rock Shop that sell chunks of soapstone by the pound. I just Googled them, their phone # is 724-452-9356 if you want directions. They have a bunch of other stuff, too - finished jewelry (a little expensive, but I've bought some beautiful moonstone pieces) beads, geodes...