My friend, Barbara, invited my other friend, Anneliese, and me for a day of bead buying at the Fashion District in LA. I’d heard people talk about the fabric and bead shops in that area but I and my credit card had never been there. We met at Barbara’s this morning and took a tour of her studio. It’s to die for! Tons of cabinets and beautiful countertops filled with papers, tools, stickers, clay, raw materials for mixed media art, a carousel of paints--basically an artists’ dream studio! I was so jealous!!
We hopped in the car and Barbara drove us into the heart of the wholesale fashion district. I was in heaven! I was looking for colored chain, which my usual wholesaler doesn’t sell. I found that and so much more. Beads that would cost three times as much elsewhere, charms I hadn’t seen anywhere else, mermaid toggles (I got three packs of those, since I didn’t know when I’d see them again) and some new display busts and a T-bar display for necklaces. Here’s the first shop we hit, a little blurry but you get the idea:
The Street of Beads:
Inside the entrance to Clifton's:
Awesome LA architecture on our walk in the Jewelry District:
A poster near the employee's room at one of the shops we were in, taken mostly to show The Husband:
Then moved on to the Bradbury Building, which is plastered with Subway and Sprint signs... But it's the inside that's amazing and these photos don't even begin to show how spectacular and lofty it is.
To the right and left are old-fashioned elevator cages:
Wrought iron railings:
When we finished our ice cream (mint chip, in case you're wondering), we thought we spied some filming down the street, so we investigated. Sure enough, a commercial for Lexus was being shot down the street. Sorry this is so blurry but you get the idea:
In the same neighborhood was this wall sized treatment of Anthony Quinn:
And, circling back to our original mission of beads, we happened to pop into a Persian art gallery on our way back to the car and here's a beautiful display of beads that complement the lovely outfit on this mannequin:







