Beadland Whirlwind - Day 2

The thought that kept crossing my mind during the Cousin Corporation Ambassador trip to what I'm now calling "Beadland" was:

"Is this the real life or is this just fantasy?"

A little bit of Bohemian Rhapsody seemed very appropriate on this dream-like trip!

On day two we were picked up bright and early since our day would be packed very full with a facility tour, company overview, trips to three of the big craft stores, ambassador presentations and, drum-roll, a jewelry making project with Cousin designers! YAY!

 

When you walk in the door at Cousin you immediately see that everyone not only lives and breathes the beauty of individual beads, but the finished pieces too.

Because their staff is so thoughtful, they had the Ambassador's recent Valentine's Day projects displayed front and center. :)

Throughout the facility there are jewelry displays, framed graphics and dress forms fully outfitted with sparkle! (Hopefully I'm not giving away company secrets when I give you this TMI detail, but seriously, there's even a gorgeous jewelry display in the restroom!)

The tour covered every department so we had a chance to meet lots of staff and see firsthand what their day to day operation looks and feels like. As you might expect, there are bead walls everywhere!

Strands and strands! I couldn't resist getting a picture of my favorites, SHAMBALLA BEADS! Those sparkly rounds are so cute in their natural habitat, but I really wanted to grab a few for my pocket. ;) Don't worry, I resisted. This is one island I don't want to get kicked off...

This is where all the packaging for the big chains like Joann's, Michaels, Walmart, etc. happens. It was great to see that safety is a top priority at Cousin. We also got to hear about future plans for making their processes more efficient. Yeah, I'm one of those people who gets excited about plans to implement new business solutions.

Project time, YAY! We were all assigned a designer to work with and had a couple hours to design and create a necklace, bracelet and pair of earrings...wow! Each of us were given a tub of beads with a specific color story and down the hall in the next room was a wall full of pendants, findings, chain, etc. that could be used as well. It was a little like cupcake wars. I think I made at least three trips to the wall as my project evolved. The last two were at a jog! Too fun!

It's becoming clear to me now that I'll need a couple more posts to share this experience. Please stay tuned for more fun in Beadland!

(Special thanks to Ambassador, Rebecca Utermohlen, for the project making pic!)