Garment District Bead Store, Open Since 1971: BeadKraft

BeadKraft is a second-floor bead store at 146 W 29th St, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, and it has supplied craft and jewelry makers since 1971. It opens at 9 am Monday through Friday and closes at 6 pm, runs 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday, and stays shut on Sunday. Because the shop sits on the second floor, it is easy to miss from the sidewalk: look for suite 2W at number 146 and head up one flight.

BeadKraft describes itself as a division of B.P.C. and says it has been a leading supplier of craft and jewelry supplies since 1971. That age shows in the way the shop is set up. It was built for people who buy in volume, designers, costume makers and small jewelry brands, and its website still carries the word wholesale in its title. Unlike a trade-only house, though, it sells single tubes and single strands to anyone who climbs the stairs.

That combination is rare in the Garment District now. Several of the old trim and notions houses in this district have closed or moved their stock online, including M&J Trimming, which has announced its retail store is closing, and the ones that remain often expect a business account. Here you can buy one $3.99 tube of beads with no paperwork, and the same shelves serve jewelry businesses filling bulk orders, the customers the shop was originally built around.

The workhorse item is the Miyuki Delica, the precise cylinder seed bead that loom weavers and peyote stitchers swear by. An 11/0 Delica tube in gunmetal, roughly 1,440 beads in a 2-inch tube, is listed at $3.99 each. Buying a few colors at once is how most beaders shop here, since the cost per bead is low and color consistency between tubes matters more than any single shade.

Freshwater pearls are the second draw. A 16-inch strand of white potato pearls in the 4 to 5mm size is listed at $28.99, and the larger 6 to 7mm white potato pearls run $39.99 a strand. Potato pearls are slightly oval and never perfectly matched, which suits knotted necklaces and casual earrings better than a formal strand. Ask to see the strand under the shop lights before buying, because luster varies from batch to batch.

For something cheap and cheerful, polymer clay disc beads in mixed colors, including smiley face and flower designs, are $7.49 for a 16-inch strand. They are popular for kids' bracelets and name bracelets paired with letter beads, which the shop also stocks. Beyond these, the shelves carry fire-polished Czech glass, gemstone beads, rhinestones, waist beads, findings and chain.

BeadKraft runs a workshop program under the name The KraftBar NYC, billed as a jewelry supply and DIY jewelry studio in Midtown Manhattan. Its events calendar listed a March 23, 2026 session called Upcycle Your Jewelry, where students turned old pieces into new wearable art, at $35 a seat. Earlier Bead and Sip evenings in fall 2025 were priced at $75.

Workshops are posted one at a time rather than on a fixed weekly calendar, so the practical move is to follow the event listings and book as soon as a date appears. The $35 upcycle format is the easier entry point: you bring broken or outdated jewelry from home, and you leave with a remade piece and a better sense of which findings and tools to buy downstairs.

Go on a weekday if you can. Saturday closes at 5 pm, an hour earlier than weekdays, and Sunday is closed entirely, so a weekend trip needs to happen on Saturday. If Sunday is your only free day, head instead to Beads of Paradise near Union Square, which opens at noon on Sundays, and save BeadKraft for a weekday lunch break.

To skip browsing altogether, order online and pick up in the store with the code PICKUPNYC at checkout. That is the smart route for repeat Delica colors you already know by number. The website also advertises up to 20% off orders of $100 and more, so if you are stocking up for a large loom project, it is worth bundling everything into one order instead of three small ones.

The 4 to 5mm white strand, for example, showed as out of stock online when this was written, so a quick text can save you the stairs.

One block south, West 28th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues is what is left of the New York Flower District. Early mornings, the sidewalks fill with potted palms, eucalyptus bundles and buckets of cut stems, and the wholesalers are used to designers walking through with swatches. It is a natural pairing if you are making jewelry for a wedding or event and want to match a floral palette.

Walk five blocks north to Herald Square and the Empire State Building rises at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, while Madison Square Garden and Penn Station sit to the west along Seventh Avenue. For a coffee stop between errands, Koreatown on West 32nd Street is a short walk northeast and stays busy late.

Address: 146 W 29th St, Suite 2W, second floor, New York, NY 10001, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. Hours: Monday 9 am to 6 pm, Tuesday 9 am to 6 pm, Wednesday 9 am to 6 pm, Thursday 9 am to 6 pm, Friday 9 am to 6 pm, Saturday 10 am to 5 pm, Sunday closed.

Subway: the shop recommends the B, D, F, M, N, Q or R to 34th Street–Herald Square, or the 1, 2, 3, A, C or E to Penn Station. Budget anchors: Delica tubes at $3.99, potato pearl strands at $28.99 and $39.99, and polymer clay strands at $7.49. There is no elevator mentioned on the site, so plan for one flight of stairs. Once you are done, ask Karpo in the Karpo APP for a quick lunch in Koreatown.