Our store has quite a few mixed bead bags. They are a favorite because they are Czech glass and each bag is filled with the prettiest beads. I purchased an assortment of bags in order to host a girlfriend jewelry making party.
They are the ideal item to have for a party because you do not have to try and purchase numerous strands in order to have so many options for your participants.
You need to remember that these are limited edition bags. They sell out quickly, so if you see a colour(s) you like, you need to pick them up right away. The next time you pop into the store there might me several new colours in their place.
At the party, as soon as someone picked their favorite colour they opened their bags to sort all the sizes and shapes they had.
It makes sense to decide in advance if you will be stringing your peices with wire or elastic. If you choose to have traditional stringing you will need to consider finishing ends, tools and closures.
If you want to keep it simple, memory wire is wonderful to use and you can use a plier to fold each end into a finished edge.
If you want to keep it extra easy, nothing beats the simplicity of elastic for bracelets and a knot for the closure.
I had my friends use a bead board to plan out the order of their beads for their memory wire bracelets.
This bracelet is from just one mixed bead bag colour wave.
For the friends who love matched jewelry I encouraged them to see if there were beads they wanted to use for earrings. They shared between bags to make sets if a really unique bead was needed. For people who have never worked with jewelry tools, I had them string their projects and I added the ends and closures for them.