Caravan Beads News

Caravan News June 1

Barry Kahn — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 08:46:46 EST

June 1, 2012

We received both air and sea shipments from Miyuki yesterday afternoon. We started unpacking and hope to finish around lunch time today, and will then update inventory on the website and send out Wait List emails. If you sent us an order last night or are sending one today, assume it will go out Monday.

Caravan Beads News Sept 14th

Barry Kahn — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:16:11 EST

September 14, 2011

The thirty new colors of Tila Beads arrived on schedule. When I checked yesterday we still had stock of all the new colors but we sold about 60% of what we received in the first couple of days, so if you want to play with these or purchase some for your shop, please don't wait too long. We have more on order but it'll be a while before they arrive.

The new colors of Fine Weight (Tex 135) C-Lon bead cord have started to arrive. Cream, gray, and orchid are now available and the remaining new colors should arrive within the next week or so.

Our September sea shipment is due in any day. See the link at the top of the page for a list of what's coming.

Upcoming price increase

Barry Kahn — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:33:05 EST

August 10, 2011: The Decline and Fall of the US Dollar

Watching the dollar fall vs the yen is quite depressing. Raising prices on Miyuki beads is also depressing, but we've once again reached the point where it's raise prices or shut the doors. For the morbidly curious I've borrowed a couple of currency graphs from Yahoo (thanks, Yahoo!) which show the past two years and five years respectively. Kinda grim.

So I'll be raising Miyuki prices by 10% sometime after 8pm EST on August 23rd. Prices on other items from Japan including Miyuki beading needles, miracle beads, Miyuki thread, etc. will also go up by 10% although it may be a few days later before I get around to those. Note: I encourage you to submit any orders currently in your baskets before the price increase as the new pricing will be applied to any orders we process starting the morning of August 24th.

The first chart below covers two years and shows the dollar falling from a little above 95 yen to the dollar to its current miserable level of around 76. In simple English it means that our costs have increased by about 20% in the past two years.

The second graph spans 2007 to the present. At the high point in 2007 one dollar bought over 120 yen; now it buys 76 so a huge increase in our costs since 2007. And unfortunately, all the predictions for the future are for the dollar yen rate to stay at its current level or get even worse.

March 23 Caravan News

Barry Kahn — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:25:12 EST

March 23, 2011

Miyuki is fine. They posted this letter on their website yesterday. Right now we do not forsee any problems with production or shipping.

We're expecting our March sea shipment to arrive within the next week. Details here. We also just received details of our end-April shipment. I'll post those as soon as the March shipment is here and unpacked.

Later this year we're expecting additional colors of long magatamas, Tila beads, and perhaps a new shape. Stay tuned!

And speaking of Miyuki, they've added some Tila project instructions to their website here.

Caravan Snow News

Barry Kahn — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:49:56 EST

February 1, 2011

I used to run a bead business, but now I work in the snow blowing & shoveling industry. It is snowing steadily here as I type, and tomorrow the prediction is for another foot or more on top of the 3-5 inches that may fall today and overnight.

So if you need some beads, please order today. Tomorrow all our employees will be staying home and both the warehouse and retail store will be closed. It is also quite likely that UPS will shut down their New England operations again, so plan on at least a one-day delay in receiving orders shipped today, and possible delays later in the week as well since this storm is messing up half the country. What a mess!

End December News from Caravan Beads

Barry Kahn — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 17:33:15 EST

December 26, 2010

Happy Holidays! The current weather forecast for our area is predicting between one and two feet of snow to fall between tonight and tomorrow evening. I've already contacted employees and told them to stay home, so if you've sent in an order over the weekend, please assume that it won't go out till Tuesday. (There's always a faint chance that the storm will track farther out to sea, but I'm not counting on it.)

We do have a sea shipment coming soon. You can see the contents here.

Caravan News: December 1

Barry Kahn — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 10:10:23 EST

December 1, 2010

Our latest Miyuki sea shipment arrived a few minutes ago and we'll be unpacking it today and tomorrow. This shipment includes Tila beads as well as new sharp triangles. For today we will ship orders which came in yesterday, plus any urgent orders (overnight or 2-Day).Other orders will go out Thursday or Friday depending on how long the unpacking takes.

When we finish unpacking, I'll send out Wait List announcements and we'll also start processing preorders. If you have questions, email is best as we won't be answering the phone much today. Thanks!

November 21 Caravan Beads Updates

Barry Kahn — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 21:12:04 EST

November 21, 2010

Where does the time go? We've been busy and then busier--and all of a sudden it's almost Thanksgiving. No snow yet in Portland, but it's coming.

To business. First, our November sea shipment will hopefully arrive on the 29th or 30th. It includes Miyuki's new sharp triangles and a much-needed restocking of the Tila beads, plus some new precious metal plated beads. As usual it will take us about a day and half to get everything unpacked, checked in, labeled, and put away and then we'll fill preorders and get back to regular shipping. If you missed it, here's the final shipment list.

Local customers, our annual Holiday Trunk Show Sale will take place on November 26th (2-7pm) and November 27th (10am - 6pm.) Full details in our newsletter archives under trunk show.

Caravan Beads News October 23

Barry Kahn — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 13:13:42 EST

Oct 23, 2010

Our October sea shipment from Miyuki is unpacked and we're back to shipping. The new Halloween and Xmas kits* are selling quickly along with other items that have been out of stock and are now here again. It's always nice to see the bin boxes full to overflowing! The String-Me-Along project bags are also proving popular and customer reaction has been very positive. One of our European bead shop owner customers sent this note:

"I must say that the String-Me-Along project bag was even better than I expected. You know when you just see a picture of a product your expectations are not too high as it might be a disappointment...But they are absolutely fantastic and we will probably be back for a lot more - a perfect gift for Xmas."

*Retail customers please contact us for sources for the Miyuki Kits.

Upcoming price changes: With few exceptions, we haven't changed the Miyuki retail tube prices in our store since we started importing from Miyuki in 1994. In the last five years,however, due to the decline in the dollar vs. yen exchange rate, our cost has increased by roughly 40%. So correcting these prices is way overdue and we're planning to work on this in the very near future, possibly in the next few days if I have time. This will also change the pricing for wholesale (but not beadstore) customers since your pricing is a discount off the retail price. This change will apply to retail Miyuki tubes in our store as well as online.

So...if you were planning to stock up on tubes, I'd suggest placing your order sooner rather than later.

Caravan Beads News August 13th

Barry Kahn — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 09:13:15 EST

August 13, 2010: Empty tubes need adoption!

We've been migrating to 2-D barcodes on our tubed beads, with the result that we now have a large supply of perfectly good bead tubes that need new homes. We are already selling them to local customers, but the supply is currently greater than the demand, so we're offering them at a discounted price to bead stores or anyone who can use them for bead storage. They are available in 9/16 x 2 1/2 inch and 9/16 x 5 inch lengths. We can supply you with blank labels to cover the existing ones if you want them for storage purposes, or if you'd like pre-printed labels we may be able to supply those as well. The shorter tubes hold approximately 10 grams; the longer ones approximately 20 grams.

Caravan News August 6, 2010

Barry Kahn — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:13:21 EST

August 6, 2010

We've had some requests for Tila projects and now that we have them in stock, Heather has been working away. Her first design is on the blog and she's started another piece which combines Tila beads and the new 2.8mm mini drops.

Speaking of Tila beads, we have already sold out of several colors and are low on some others. I fully expect to sell out of our current stock within the next couple of weeks if not sooner, so if you haven't yet purchased any, you might want to do so soon. We've already ordered more but Miyuki has told us these are slow to produce, so it may be sometime in September or even October before we get another shipment.

July sea shipment is here

Barry Kahn — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:37:31 EST

July 27, 2010

Our July sea shipment just arrived. We'll be unpacking it for the rest of the afternoon and probably most of tomorrow and then will resume regular shipping, including all your Tila and 2.8mm drop preorders. If you call, we probably won't answer but you can leave a message on my extension, 201, and we'll get back to you within 30-45 minutes.

Tila Beads starting to arrive

Barry Kahn — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:43:28 EST

July 22, 2010

We received an air shipment from Miyuki today. It includes nine colors of Tila beads plus lots of out of stock Delicas. For a bonus, silver and gold Duracoat Delicas in 11/0, 10/0, and 8/0. (Color numbers 1831 and 1832.) Expect those to vanish in a day or two. The sea shipment with the remaining 21 colors of Tila beads should be here soon. Fun!

July 12 Caravan News

Barry Kahn — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:44:39 EST

July 12, 2010

Our July sea shipment from Miyuki is on its way and should arrive during the week of July 26th. It includes new 2-hole Tila beads and new 2.8mm drop beads. Here is a list of the contents.

Miyuki has been sending us samples of other new goodies as well, including lots more sterling plated beads (drops, bugles, cubes, etc.), new sharp-edged triangles coming in September, and Duracoat Delicas in sizes 11, 10, and 8, some of which will start arriving in August. It is, if my rusty college French can be trusted, an embarras de richesses.

Also now in: Fine weight C-Lon (Tex 135) available to wholesale customers in Light Copper and Shanghai Red.

July 5th hours

Barry Kahn — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 08:04:25 EST

July 5, 2010

Happy 4th & 5th of July! Caravan Beads--both the retail store and the warehouse--will be closed today. We'll return to regular hours tomorrow.

June Sea Shipment

Barry Kahn — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:00:31 EST

June 17, 2010

Miyuki's June sea shipment arrived late this afternoon and we've begun unpacking it. Hope to finish by early afternoon tomorrow and then we'll resume regular shipping and also work on preorders for the new 15/0 Delicas and the 6/0 Duracoat Galvanized beads.

Caravan News End of May

Barry Kahn — Sun, 30 May 2010 17:25:52 EST

May 30, 2010

Where did May go? We got busy and suddenly another month is receding into the distance. This acceleration of time that seems to accompany increasing age is for the birds.

Now that I'm done speechifying, our next Miyuki sea shipment is inbound and should arrive in about two weeks. It includes Duracoat Galvanized 6/0s plus 106 new colors of 15/0 Delicas. Nice! There's a link to the shipment contents at left.

Barry Kahn — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:20:04 EST

April 16, 2010

The final eight new colors of C-Lon Bead Cord planned for 2010 will arrive early next week. This brings the total to 104 colors.

Colors are Blue Morning, Blush, Chinese Coral, Heavy Cream, Indigo, Lemongrass, Mahogany, Wheat.

Barry Kahn — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 19:03:01 EST

April 5, 2010

A quick update with more info to follow. I'm hoping to send out a newsletter in the next 2-3 days. If you're not on our mailing list, there's a link at the bottom of the page.

First, Miyuki just shipped our next sea freight which will arrive at the beginning of May. It includes the Duracoat Galvanized 8/0s. Links to what's coming are in the left column.

Second, we've received quite a few inquiries about Miyuki's new Tila Beads and the small 2.8mm Drop beads. Both are on order. No delivery info yet for the drops, but the Tila Beads should be here by the end of July or early August. The Tila Beads are now listed on the shopping cart and pre-orders are recommended. Check out the Bead Blog for more info and photos.

March 4 Caravan News

Barry Kahn — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:19:49 EST

March 4, 2010

Two quick notes: First, our March sea shipment arrived late this afternoon. We'll have it unpacked by Monday morning if not sooner and then will be ready to start shipping preorders including the many for the Duracoat Galvanized 11/0s.

Second: We started shipping the 100-card sets of C-Lon bead cord sample cards today. What a project! We prepped roughly 8,000 cards to get these ready. Wholesale customers can find them on the shopping cart (remember to log in first). If you're not on our mailing list (there's a link at the bottom of this page), here's what the cards look like:

News Update Feb 19th

Barry Kahn — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:52:26 EST

Feb 19, 2010

Very busy this month! But it's calm for the moment so here's what's new. First, we received very positive feedback from designers who tried out the new C-Lon Tex 135 bead cord. We're calling it "Fine Weight" and fourteen additional colors (black and white are already in stock) will be coming in during the year, with the next six colors expected in two months or less and the rest by the end of summer.

Second, a reminder that we are using a new service to handle our retail and wholesale newsletters. If you're not signed up, or if you want to check and make sure you are, please use the link at the bottom of every page on the site.

Third, this weekend I will be posting the contents of our next Miyuki sea shipment on the site. It's scheduled to arrive in early March.

That's it for the moment. It almost feels like Spring today here in Maine. My 1000 year old cat even decided to go outside and sunbathe.

Feb 3rd quick update

Barry Kahn — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:49:43 EST

Feb 3, 2010: 9:45pm

Two quick things. First, our regular evening inventory refresh which brings all the shopping cart inventory levels up to date failed for some reason so everything on the cart now appears to be unavailable. Makes it hard to go shopping! I'm back at work running the upload again and hopefully all will be corrected in the next 30-45 minutes.

Second, I sent out an email to everyone on both our retail and wholesale email newsletter lists earlier this evening asking you to verify that you still want to receive the newsletters. The combined lists are close to 5,000 addresses and I'm quite sure that some are no longer valid. We're using a new service to send out the newsletters so I thought I'd use their cleanup service to get the invalid emails out of the list, and also to let you opt in or out as desired. So the email you got earlier is legitimate (some cautious customers have emailed me to confirm, which in these perilous times is very sensible!) and it's okay to click the link to verify you want to stay on the list. We've already gotten about 700 verifications so I know it's working correctly. Thanks and may your computer(s) behave.

Caravan News February 3

Barry Kahn — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:50:50 EST

February 2, 2010

A busy January! Let's see:

The next eight colors of C-Lon Bead Cord will be arriving in a couple of weeks. They are: azalea, dark tan, eggplant, fern, ice blue, pearl, steel, and violet.

In addition we're adding a new fine weight cord to our C-Lon line: C-Lon Tex 135. It's now available in black and white but we plan for at least 16 colors which will be arriving over the course of the year. The thickness is halfway between the Micro Cord and our regular Bead Cord. Excellent for bead crochet ropes, fine lace work, stringing, and lots of other uses. Just as there can never be too many colors, sizes, and shapes of beads, based on customer inquiries it seems there can never be enough colors or thicknesses of thread and cord.

Today's mail brought us a new Miyuki sample card for 2.8mm drops. Cute doesn't begin to describe them. More news as we find out Miyuki's production schedule and begin the painful job of choosing which colors to order for the first round. There are also more colors of 15/0 Delicas in the pipeline.

Our bead blog is now getting regular updates with free project ideas, and we're working on revisions to this site as well. Today the retail page got a partial make-over and there are lots more changes planned.

Here is our retail store class schedule for the next six months. There are some very cool new projects like these ladder stitch rings:

Miyuki just sent us the contents list for the next sea shipment. I'll post details later in the week or on the weekend. It includes the Duracoat Galvanized beads in size 11/0. Speaking of which, Jocelyn's bracelet made of Duracoat Galvanized 11/0s (see the November news below) still looks great.

January sea shipment

Barry Kahn — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:13:37 EST

Jan 8, 2010

Our January sea shipment from Miyuki arrived this morning so we'll be out in the warehouse all day unpacking. We'll ship urgent orders only this afternoon and I'll send out Wait List announcements as soon as we finish checking in the shipment.

December 22nd News

Barry Kahn — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:19:27 EST

December 22nd, 2009

Holiday hours update: the retail store will be closed from December 28th through January 1st for inventory. It will reopen on January 2nd at 10am.

The warehouse will be closed December 24th & 25th. There will be limited shipping December 28th - 30th as we help with the retail inventory. Normal shipping will resume January 4th.

Our next shipment from Miyuki is scheduled to arrive around January 8th.

After six weeks of day and night wear, Jocelyn's Duracoat Galvanized™ bracelet still looks perfect. Speaking of the DG beads, we expect our first shipment of these to arrive in February and we recommend preordering if you want to be sure of getting some. More will arrive in March and April.

November 28, 2009

Barry Kahn — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:49:41 EST

November 28, 2009

It's now been three weeks since Jocelyn started wearing her bracelet made of Miyuki's new Duracoat Galvanized™ 11/0s, and as the photo shows, they still look perfect. I'll update their condition again sometime in December.

Our trunk show has been going great--still a couple of hours left before the guest artists depart...

November 27, 2009

Barry Kahn — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:31:42 EST

November 27, 2009

Our warehouse will be closed today. We'll resume shipping on Monday. The retail store will be open today from 10am - 8pm, with our holiday trunk show preview starting at 6pm.

November 21, 2009

Barry Kahn — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:37:51 EST

November 21, 2009

Some quick updates:

First: Local customers should check the classes page for a list of our December/Holiday classes. Fun!

Second: I think we have four warehouse employees who will be away on Monday, and we've already got a lot of orders in the queue. We'll do our best to get everything shipped, but please be aware that your emergency order may be in line behind other rush orders that we're already working on.

Third: New C-Lon sample cards should be available in 3-5 weeks. I'll have more information in December but I've finally come up with a solution that I'm content with.

Fourth: Miyuki is packing up a small air shipment of Delicas, some kits, and beading needles for us. It should be here in 7-10 days.

Finally, have a great Thanksgiving!

November 14, 2009

Barry Kahn — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:54:39 EST

November 14, 2009

We'll be unpacking our November Miyuki sea shipment on Monday and Tuesday, so on those two days we will only ship overnight and 2-Day orders unless you request otherwise. If you are placing an order this weekend and need it to urgently, please let us know. The contents of the shipment are listed in the left sidebar.

In addition to the bracelets that Jocelyn is wearing and testing, I asked another employee, Caitlin, to make a necklace with some Duracoat Galvanized™ gold 6/0s that Miyuki sent us as a sample. This necklace is now three days into 24/7 testing and also shows no signs of wear.

November 11, 2009

Barry Kahn — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:44:15 EST

November 11, 2009

Younger daughter Jocelyn is off to New York for the weekend, so the two galvanized bracelets will be exposed to air pollution in the Big Apple as part of their testing. The Duracoat beads still look great but the old-style ones are visibly losing their finish. I'll update the report when she gets back.

A note for our bead store owner customers: As you know, we recently updated our Miyuki wholesale pricing to compensate for the big drop in the value of the dollar vs the yen. Over the next couple of days I'll be reviewing the store tube pricing (items beginning with TB) and expect that many of these will increase at least by a few percent as well. These price adjustments should be completed this weekend at the latest.

For those of you running your own small business, or just interested in how difficult it is, I ran across this compelling article in the NY Times yesterday.

November 10, 2009

Barry Kahn — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:39:01 EST

November 10, 2009

Miyuki is about to begin production of their new Duracoat Galvanized™ beads. Traditional galvanized beads have a very weak finish which rubs off easily. Miyuki's new beads are much more durable and if treated with reasonable care, can be used for jewelry. Please be aware that there are no "permanent finish" galvanized beads, in spite of claims to the contrary. Any dye, plating, or coating applied to the surface of beads can wear off or deteriorate depending on the amount of wear and tear the beads suffer.

That said, my younger daughter is currently field testing a bracelet made with four colors of Miyuki's new Duracoat Galvanized™ beads. (Shown on the right in the photo below.) She's been wearing the bracelet 24/7 for four days now and it's holding up nicely in spite of showers, dishwashing, and a lot of deliberate rubbing. As a control she also made a bracelet with the original galvanized beads. My quick snapshot below doesn't show it, but the finish on the old-style beads is already flaking off. I'll keep you informed of the results of our testing, but it's already clear that the Duracoat finish is much stronger.

When we will we have stock? I'm expecting an initial shipment in January with more to follow in February and March . Miyuki has said that it will take them some time to ramp up production of these, so for quite a while I anticipate that whatever comes in will already be promised to customers. If you would like to reserve some, please call or email and let us know which ones you'd like. I think we will restrict orders to a maximum of 250 grams per color per customer initially so that as many of you as possible can get some. And please contact us directly to preorder these. If you are not in a hurry, using the Wait List on our website is fine, but remember that the Wait List is not the same as preordering and reserving in advance.

You can see the new DG beads listed under the New Products tab on our shopping cart. We have not yet set tube pricing for bead store customers so you'll only find full and half pack prices listed. Other customers will see all prices.

I almost forgot: the initial shipment will include 11/0s, 8/0s, and 6/0s. Miyuki has now started to test other shapes and sizes, so more to follow later next year.

November 5, 2009

Barry Kahn — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:50:13 EST

November 5, 2009

Local customers: We will be hosting another fundraising evening for FIRST on November 17 from 5-8pm at our retail store. We hope you'll join us for an evening of holiday beading. 30% of all sales will be donated to this worthy cause.

Happy Halloween

Barry Kahn — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:43:27 EST

Happy Halloween Barry Kahn http://www.caravanbeads.net/pages/news.html <h2>October 31, 2009</h2> <p>Happy Halloween! Our November sea shipment from Miyuki just left Japan and I'll post the contents list shortly. But today's news is that after months of literally day and night labor, my daughter Heather and her tall pal, Jeff, are launching their new business and website: <a href="http://www.chrononautmercantile.com/">Chrononaut Mercantile</a>. I hope you'll take a look and tell your friends so we can show that viral marketing is alive and well. (I recommend their About Us page for an entertaining place to start.)</p> Sat, 31 Oct 14:36:18 EST

October 21, 2009

Barry Kahn — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:56:19 EST

October 21, 2009

The latest round of 8 new colors of C-Lon Bead Cord arrived this afternoon and will be available on the shopping cart later this evening. Another sixteen colors are still to come in 2010 along with who knows what other surprises?

We're entering the season when emergency ordering occurs the most. I know it's not always possible, but when you can, please plan ahead. We try to process and ship orders quickly, but if your order arrives an hour before the UPS truck is due here, chances are pretty good we won't ship till the next day. On the same topic, we just reviewed planned employee vacations and travel around Thanksgiving, and staffing will be light the week before and the week of Thanksgiving. I'll mention it again when we get closer to the holiday, but please assume it will take us a little longer to process and ship orders in the second half of November.

Return of RSS Feed

Barry Kahn — Tue, 14 Sep 2009 08:56:02 EST

Sept 22, 2009

Black C-Lon bead cord (CLC-BK) is back in stock.

Well ahead of schedule, the retail-ready packaging of Miyuki beads for bead stores is now listed on the shopping cart. Please read the notes on the cart home page.

With help from my teenage programmer son, Owen, the RSS feed for this news page should now work. (I do my best but sometime it takes a 16-year-old pro to keep up with the code. I salute his arcane expertise.)

We recently received some large-hole Czech crystal rondelles which were a special order for a local customer who canceled on us. We're going to put them out for sale in our retail store but if you're interested, let me know. I'll check the hole size tomorrow but they were intended for hair wraps so the holes are probably at least 2mm.

Retail-Ready Packaging

Barry Kahn — Tue, 14 Sep 2009 08:56:02 EST

Sept 14, 2009

The eight new colors of C-Lon bead cord are all here and will be available to purchase tomorrow.

Bead store owners: We'll be adding Miyuki beads in retail-ready packaging over the next month, starting with 11/0 Delicas this coming week. I hope to have all in-stock Miyuki items available by mid-October, about 4,500 items.

All colors of long magatamas plus their sample cards have arrived, as well as a couple of new 11/0 and 8/0 Delicas. Remember to check the new items link on the cart to see which items have arrived during the past month.