November 9, 2018

Every day, I hear customers saying, “I bought some stuff online…but it wasn’t the color/size/material I thought it was going to be…”

The situation makes me a bit sad…not only for the suffering businesses in Arcata, but for our customers. Online purchases don’t help our community, and people aren’t getting what they need or want.

This is the very reason we are here! In our beautiful little shop on the Arcata plaza, with things for you to touch and feel and measure. And you don’t have to buy a huge amount (which you will never be able to use anyway!) We help our customers find the exact right thing for their project. We offer expertise and advice and special orders. We offer skilled repairs for your broken jewelry. We offer adjustable cords for pendants, new earwires when yours wear out, and the most friendly kind staff to ask all of your jewelry questions. And we can usually fix or help right away, it only takes a few moments to switch out some earwires or crimp a necklace. We do that. Simple. Quick. Super cheap.

So this holiday, come on in! We have something for everyone: bookmarks, earrings, zipper pulls, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, window crystals.  All of our things can be customized to your taste, or purchased right out of our gallery of creations.

We are also going to start some new things, like being open for projects classes during Arts! Arcata, and regular gemstone trunk shows. But all of our preparations, expertise, and optimism only goes so far when our little Arcata economy  is changing.

What will our wonderful small town in far Northern California become? We get to decide. Now. Shopping local, keeping our money here in our community, supporting artists and craftspeople who live and work here and raise our children here. Really making a decision to turn away from large corporate online retailers is important to all of the small businesses in our community.

Where will you shop this holiday season? We would love to see you here, at our sweet little bead shop on the Arcata Plaza. Come see us. We miss you.