Abat-Jour Illimites has whatever it is you need or want for your lamp.   Bring your base when you come to choose from amongst the 7,000 shades in this store at prices from $18 to $2,000 in every shape, size and fabric possible.

If you can’t find it among the parchment, silk, lace, linen, cotton, organza  or jacquard, you can have one made-to-order in silicon, wood, resin or metal. Why not have a unique one custom-painted? On-site repair is available.

Location: 4875 Jean-Talon ouest
corner: Victoria
Tel: 514-344-8555
Hours: Mon-Fri 10-6, Sat 9-5
www.abatjourillimites.ca

At Bead Box, there is a passion to teach beading, so you too can create beautiful jewelry. Look at the rainbow wall of beads (natural, semi-precious, Swarovski, pearls, resin, silver), and displays of finished work, they will entice you to sign up. Taking a Sunday workshop for beginners is a good way to while away the snowy winter.

Stringing is an Introduction to learning how to bead. Students will learn the proper way to assemble strung necklaces and bracelets, as well as the function and usage of the different findings, threads, and wires. Also a great class for the self-taught novice beaders or anyone who wishes to learn to professional finishing techniques.

Anyone from 12 yrs and older can do this and the course is given in French and English. This class is offered Sunday 10-12pm and costs $40.00 (plus taxes), materials included.

Another course, wire wrapping and looping earrings is also for beginners. The wire wrapped loop is a staple of wire working. It is an essential skill to make earrings, dangle a pendant or connect components. Students will learn this versatile technique while crafting a beautiful pair of sterling silver & crystal earrings. This class is offered Sunday 10-12 pm and costs $60.00 (plus taxes), materials included and are preselected.

You can bring a necklace you have at home to be re-modeled here, or they can show you how to do it yourself. Minors repairs are handled too.

If you don’t have the time to create right now, they have a selection of elegant pieces for you to buy. Their lines  include Nancy Dunitz, fair trade jewelry from Guatemala (made by talented Mayan Indian women), and the Pandora line (they have been authorized retailers since 2006).

Location: 17B Cartier, Pointe Claire
corner: Bord du lac
Phone: 514-697-4224
Store Hours: Tues-Wed 11-6, Thurs & Fri 11-7, Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5
www.beadbox.ca
https://www.facebook.com/EntBeadBoxinc

At Bead Box, there is a passion to teach beading, so you too can create beautiful jewelry. There’s a sale happening this month.  Beginner courses start at $40 for 2 hrs, including materials, and then you can go on to crocheting with wire thread, wire wrapping and looping, peyote stitch and more.

Look at the rainbow wall of beads (natural, semi-precious, Swarovski, pearls, resin, silver), and displays of finished work which will entice you to sign up.

You can bring a necklace you have at home to be re-modeled here, or they can show you how to do it yourself. Minors repairs are handled too.

If you don’t have the time to create right now, they have a selection of elegant pieces for you to buy. Their lines  include Nancy Dunitz, fair trade jewelry from Guatemala (made by talented Mayan Indian women), and the Pandora line (they have been authorized retailers since 2006).

From November 1st to November 30th, you can get your hands on some first-grade merchandise at 50% off. All glass beads (including Miyuki & Delicas), wooden beads, resin and metal findings (including TierraCast) are on promotion – 75% off selected merchandise and up to 50% off books

It’s a good time to get your supplies for gifts before the Christmas rush kicks in. Look for their monthly discount coupons offered on Facebook only:  https://www.facebook.com/EntBeadBoxinc

Location:17B Cartier, Pointe Claire
corner: Bord du lac
Phone: 514-697-4224
Hours: Tues-Wed 11-6, Thurs & Fri 11-7, Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5
Sale dates: Nov 1 – Nov30
www.beadbox.ca

Q1: With the Cirque du Soleil in town, and this being their home town, I was wondering if you know of any businesses where they shop right here in Montreal and can we shop there too?

Since Cirque headquartered Montreal North, their design team uses Montreal businesses as their palette to create costumes and scenery that wow the planet. Those of you with creative itches are lucky to be able to shop in very same stores. Cirque du Soleil has been enjoyed by about 60 million circus-goers more than 100 cities on five continents!

Q2:  What kinds of things are they searching for when they go looking?

What I’m talking about today are businesses who sell fabric related products with high visibility levels, be they sparkly, glittery, shiny, glow-in-the-dark, or just plain feathery (with Totem as the new show there are even feathers glued onto their faces). All of these eventually get sewn or attached to a base suit of spandex.

Q3. Okay let’s start with the spandex, where does someone go for that?

Les Textiles Bon-mar is right on boul. St-Laurent and they sell yards and yards of spandex for that second skin that performers wear. Some of it gets printed on with animal-like or other patterns and the rest incorporates metallics, shiny fabrics, glitter fabrics, holograms, netting or glow-in-the dark fabrics into designs.

There’s new state-of-the art fabric using are photonics. These are electronic fabrics which have thread like electric wiring running through powered by a power source. They need costumes to light up in the dark all kinds of patterns.

The rest of this store is full of unusual fabrics for athletics – swimming, figure skating, dance, gymnastics, windsurfing, aerobics and also for theatrical events. Their products go from keeping you warm to cooling you off or keeping you safe.  Hard to find products like Wonderflex and Fosshape are here for mask making.

They sell Scotchlite reflective tapes and have a new division ((canucme.com) that makes luminescent t-shirts which light up in the dark keeping you safe at night by by making you visible. The graphics are made using 3M™ Scotchlite™ glass bead technologies.  Each reflective graphic is composed of millions of microscopic glass beads covered in aluminum.

Location: 8448  St. Laurent Blvd.
Corner: De Liege St.
Phone: 514-382-2275.
Hours: Mon-Fri 8:30-4:30
www.bon-mar.com

Q4: You mentioned feathers and boas, those are fun accessories, where would they go for those?

F.F.F. French Feather & Flowers, the name says it all. If you are in the need of feathery things – flowers, veils, feathers and boas (in white, red, black, burgundy, fuchsia, hot pink, bright yellow, forest green, lime, light pink, orange, brown, etc.), this place is a treasure trove. Hand made flowers a big specialty not only for Cirque, but for bridal parties they can be made into headpieces or centerpieces.

Flowers can be created out of your own fabric or out of feathers. Feathers added to real-flower bridal centerpieces and for baby baptism parties or lamps. Bridal headpieces are sold here too as well as garters, silk flowers 1st communion veils, purses, gloves and bridal shower parasols,

Location: 6565 Henri Bourassa Blvd. W
Corner: Sartelon
Phone: 514-332-8584
Hours: by appointment: Mon-Fri 8:30-4:304, closed 12-1
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Q5:  Okay, that leaves the sparkly things, where do the designers shop for them?

Frabels, a business that has been around for 70 years, sells Cirque rhinestones, rhinestone banding, sequins, sequin appliques, sew-on stones (flat stones with two holes in them), beads and lots of chain.  The showroom is full of findings, beads, rhinestones, pearls, semi precious stones, resin beads and Swarovski crystals for jewelry-making. All kinds of rhinestone trim, tools, chain, wire, etc. are here along with a hot fix setting machine and catalogues to look through to find exactly what else you might need. You must spend at least $200.

5580 Pare St.
Corner: Devonshire
Phone: 514-842-8561
Hours: Mon-Wed 8:30-5, Thurs 8:30-8, Fri 8:30-4:30, Sat 9-2 (summer call first)
www.frabels.com

Q1:  Fall is a time to start new hobbies, and with beaded jewelry all over the fashion pages, there’s been a huge resurgence in the desire to learn how to bead

For about last 7 years, the making and wearing of beaded necklaces and jewelry has been hot. Think about it, for both men and women, the adornment of beads for ornamentation goes back to ancient civilizations.

Besides the beauty of the beads and the finished items, “more and more people use it as a tool to relax”, says Ruth Shine, former owner of the grandmamma store of them all – the Bead Emporium – which had opened in 1974 (and recently closed). Beading can be repetitive, so it is soothing. It is also a hobby that doesn’t take up much space.

Q2:  Is it just beading necklaces, or are there other ways, this hobby is taking off?

– Beads are also moving out of the traditional stringing them on a string routine. For instance, they have been fashioned by Pandora in Denmark as charm bracelet items to be given one at a time for special occasions.
– Beads  are being used to make art cards.
– Beads can be a history or geography lesson, if you want to learn where they come from.
– Shine also uses beads as the theme of escorted vacation touring in Mexico.
– Rare bead specimens from all corners of the world are also bought and sold to collectors.

Q3:  Is it hard to do?  Where can we take lessons?

Bead Box, 17B Cartier Ave at Bord du Lac, Pointe Claire. Phone: 514-697-4224. Hours: Tuesday and Wednesday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 12 a.m. to 5 p.m. There is a passion here for teaching beading, so that you too can create beautiful jewelry. For those who are looking for something special, it’s their unique beads and colors that follow the fashion trends which makes their customers happy.

This is the store which sells the Pandora charm bracelets from Denmark. You can add silver, gold, semi-precious and Murano glass beads to it. Beginner courses start at $40 (plus materials) for two hours, and then you can go on to crocheting with wire thread, wire wrapping and looping, peyote stitch and more. Looking at the rainbow wall of beads (natural, semi-precious, Swarovski, pearls, resin, silver) and displays of finished work which will entice you to sign up.

Club Bead +,  65 Cremazie Blvd. West at St. Laurent Blvd. Phone: 514-389-1616. Hours: Monday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday to Friday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. This treasure chest is full of seed beads from China, Czech Republic fire polished ones, crystal beads (the whole line of Swarovski) along with wood, bone, horn, cat’s eye, golden coral and semi-precious stones in special shapes.

Titanium and aluminum jump rings in wild colors and colored copper wire can be purchased. The club has the largest selection of English and French books on beading, and offers workshops. The beginner artisan workshop lasts five weeks, and you learn the basics of beading and jewelry making for $125. Club membership is free with your first $100 purchase and after that, if you spend over $50 you’ll get your 30% discount.  www.clubbeadplus.com

Q4:  You always seem to find a place to buy it for less, do you have one for beads?

Frabels, 5580 Pare St. at Devonshire Rd. Phone: 514-842-8561. Hours: Monday to Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you’re into making jewelry, this wholesaler has sixty-four years of knowledge. Hy Stern started the business back in 1942 after being introduced to the Swarovski crystal beads by F.B. Allen, so they were the first to sell them here – and you can still check out their sparkling Swarovski wall.

Their airy bright new showroom is oriented to the retail trade (you must spend at least $200) and is packed with findings, beads, rhinestones, pearls, semi precious stones and resin beads for jewelry-making. All kinds of rhinestone trim, tools, chain, wire, leather cord, etc. are here along with catalogues you can look through to find exactly what else you might need.

You will discover things here that are not found in the other businesses mentioned – perhaps large crystal pendants, donuts (semi-precious discs) or even crystal chandelier components. www.frabels.com