Although you can find beads in just about any craft store, you generally won't find a big selection. A chain craft store such as Michaels will have a fair variety of glass seed beads, but the more outstanding beads will come in limited varieties. And good luck finding long strands of smooth pearls or deep blue lapis lazuli. But where else can you find beads?

Local mom and pop bead stores are a good bet. They offer a much wider variety of products for the beader and jewelry-maker: Charms, pendants, beads, Swarovski crystals, and jewelry-making supplies. Many bead stores even offer beading classes, which is yet another good reason to check and see if there's a bead store in your area. Look in the phone book under "beads retail" to see what's listed.

If there aren't any bead stores in your area, you can look for beads online. You can find many different types of beads on eBay for a reasonable price. There's also Fire Mountain Gems, a well-organized website selling beads, gems, jewelry supplies, and string materials.

Although Fire Mountain Gems offers high quality materials for decent prices, you might also want to check into Oriental Trading Company for some really good deals. Although Fire Mountain has them beat on selection and quality, the Oriental Trading Company has great prices for decent beads. Finally, there's Artbeads.com. What they have to offer is about as good as Fire Mountain Gems, but the great thing is that shipping is free!

So don't feel like you're only limited to what your local craft store has to offer. There are lots of other places to get great beads and jewelry-making supplies.