There I was, wandering through Winners with my daughter, holding my almost-five-month-old grandson so Mom could have a few extra uninterrupted minutes to shop.
This is important grandmother work.
We play peekaboo in every mirror we pass. We make ridiculous faces at each other. I bounce him around, he thinks I'm hilarious, and together we're doing our very best to turn him into a shopper while he's still young and impressionable.
So no, I wasn't looking for beads.
I wasn't looking for jewelry.
I wasn't really looking at much of anything other than the adorable little guy in my arms.
And then I saw the rings.
Little stacks of beaded rings.
Apparently my Bead Dynasty radar works even while carrying an infant and making faces into a Winners mirror.
Naturally, I wandered closer.
And then I saw the price.
$29.99. For Four Rings.
I cannot properly express the level of disbelief I experienced standing there in Winners.
These weren't precious stones. There was no gold involved. No tiny diamonds twinkling back at me.
We are talking about seed beads, for heaven's sake.
Four little stackable beaded rings for thirty bucks once we're done pretending that penny is coming back.
I looked at them.
Looked at the price.
Looked at them again.
Surely I was missing something.
Nope.
Just four cute little beaded rings sitting there confidently commanding $29.99 like they'd inherited the family fortune.
Suddenly Grandma wasn't playing peekaboo anymore. Grandma was conducting a full financial analysis in the jewelry aisle.
Although, given the current price of absolutely everything in Canada, perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised. Apparently we're now living in a world where you can have four stackable seed-bead rings or a package of ground beef for dinner. Same budget. Choose wisely.
Personally, I chose to go home and find my seed beads.
Because Of Course I Had to Try
A few days later, those $29.99 rings were still living rent-free in my head.
This wasn't really about declaring, “I can make those cheaper!” Handmade and commercially produced jewelry are two entirely different things.
I was just curious.
How were they made? What were they strung on? Would they actually be comfortable? What would they look like made with beads from my own stash?
And perhaps most importantly...
Have I been seriously underestimating the financial potential of tiny beads this entire time?
Apparently my family fortune wasn't going to be built on oil.
It was going to be built on stackable rings.
Money. Power. Pony Beads.
So, naturally, I made some.
And they were FUN.
Tiny, quick, colourful and one of those projects where you make one and immediately think, Well, I'll just make another.
Which is how these things always start.
And Then My Daughter Saw Them
A few days later, my daughter was over for another visit.
She sees pretty much everything I make. She's always been one of my biggest cheerleaders, whether I've made something fabulous or I'm standing there holding some questionable craft-room experiment asking, “Okay, but what do you think?”
She spotted the rings.
She loved them.
And just like that, my little Winners experiment left the craft room.
She's now wearing them out and about—running errands, taking care of her boys and doing everyday Mom life with those little rings on her fingers.
And I think that's the part I love most.
I started making them because I saw a $29.99 price tag in Winners and thought, Well, now I have to see if I can make those.
But mine didn't end up on a display card under fluorescent store lights.
They ended up on my daughter's hand.
There are seed beads in there, sure.
But there's also curiosity, creativity, a funny afternoon at Winners, a little grandmother-and-grandson peekaboo, and a little bit of her mother's heart and soul tucked in there too.
So, Winners, you can keep your $29.99 rings.
Mine are already priceless.
Although I am absolutely still thinking about that $29.99.
Seriously.
Seed beads.
Want to Try Making One?
Side note for anyone now staring at their bead stash thinking, Well, apparently I need rings too—these are ridiculously simple to make.
Grab a piece of Stretch Magic and string on seed beads or other tiny beads until your beaded section measures somewhere around 2 to 2½ inches, depending on the size of ring you want.
Definitely check the fit around your finger before tying anything because fingers, rather inconveniently, refuse to come in one standard size.
Once you're happy with the fit, tie your Stretch Magic the same way you would when making a stretch bracelet.
And then comes the most technically advanced part of this entire project:
Intensely struggle to hide that tiny knot inside one of those equally tiny beads.
That's it.
String. Check the fit. Knot. Hide the evidence.
Congratulations. You've entered the apparently lucrative world of stackable seed-bead rings. 😂
Unfortunately, Something Has Been Awakened
Now, a reasonable person would stop here.
I saw the rings. I made the rings. My daughter loved the rings. The rings have gone off into the world to live a happy little ring life.
The end.
Except apparently that's not how things work around here.
Because somewhere between the $29.99 price tag, digging through my seed beads and watching my daughter happily wear my little experiment, something has been awakened.
Now I want to try making a wire-wrapped ring.
Why?
I have absolutely no idea.
We literally just watched what happened when I discovered wire-wrapped bracelets. Apparently I've learned nothing.
So consider this your warning.
There will be wire.
There will be beads.
There will almost certainly be at least one moment where I stare at a pair of pliers and wonder what possessed me to start this.
And if all goes according to the usual Bead Dynasty storyline, there may even be a ring at the end of it.
Next chapter: Wire-Wrapped Rings.
Money. Power. Pony Beads.
And apparently now...
tiny pieces of wire.
