Terms, Conditions and FAQs

Beads by Laura Terms & Conditions

Payment

I accept payment by PayPal and card payments via the PayPal system.

If you're a UK customer, I can also take payment by bank transfer. If you'd like to pay by bank transfer, please select this option at checkout and go ahead and place your order. I will then be in touch with my bank details so that you can arrange payment. Payment must be made within 24 hours of me receiving your order.

I do not accept cheques or postal orders.

Postage and Delivery

UK Customers

Delivery is by Royal Mail. If you are outside the UK you may have to pay import duties, tax, postal service handling fees, or other fees. I am not responsible or liable for these - you are. Please check with your local postal service or relevant body to see what the current import value thresholds are where you live, and what fees you may be liable for.

Postage is calculated by the value of your order.

Orders up to £20.00 are sent Royal Mail 2nd Class to UK addresses. This is £2.00 per order and usually takes two to three working days.

Orders over £20.00 and up to £150.00 are sent Royal Mail Tracked 48. This is £3.50 per order, insured, trackable online and usually takes two working days.

Orders over £150.00 are sent Royal Mail Special Delivery. This is £7.50 per order and is insured and trackable online. A signature is required upon delivery.

Overseas Customers

If you are outside the UK - including all EU countries - you may have to pay import duties, VAT, other tax, postal service handling fees, or other fees, at your end. Normally your country's postal service will contact you to arrange payment of these fees before they will deliver your package to you. I am not responsible or liable for these taxes or fees - you are. Please check with your local postal service or relevant body to see what the current import value thresholds are where you live, and what taxes and/or fees you may be liable for.

Postage to Europe, America, Canada and the rest of the world is Royal Mail International Tracked and postage is calculated by the value of your order.

Postage for orders up to £50.00 costs £11.00. This is insured and trackable online.

Postage for orders over £50.00 costs £13.50. This is insured and trackable online.

In the rare event of your parcel not arriving, please contact me and we will work together to resolve the issue.

Cancellations, Refunds and Returns

To cancel an order, please contact me within 30 minutes of completing the order process and I will issue a full refund.

I do not accept returns or issue refunds just because you no longer want the item.

For hygiene reasons, earrings are NOT returnable.

In the event of your item arriving damaged, please contact me to arrange a return. In the case of damage I will either remake the item if I am able to, or issue you a refund. A refund will not be issued until I have received the item back from you.

Any Other Issues

If you have any problem or issue with your order, please just email me and we will work together to resolve it. I'm a one woman operation, not a huge corporation, and I will do everything I can to sort out any order trouble you may have.

Safety

My glass beads are not intended for use on or by children as they could present a choking hazard or break with inappropriate handling.

My beads are glass and although each bead is carefully annealed, they are still glass and can break if improperly handled, dropped or hit against something hard. In the event of breakage, please discard immediately.

When wearing glass beads, please take care not to expose them to any situations that may cause them to break and be sure to protect them from impacts or extreme temperature changes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where and how can I buy your beads?

My beads are available to buy directly from me here on my website. They can be found in my s hop.

I accept payment by PayPal.

How are the beads presented?
My beads are all wrapped in tissue paper and orders are sent out in cardboard boxes or padded envelopes. Jewellery is tissue-wrapped and/or gift-packaged.

I'm buying your work as a gift. Can you include a note with my order?
Yes, no problem at all. I can hand write you a tag with whatever message you like. Your gift will be sent to the recipient without any prices printed anywhere. Just tell me you'd like a gift note and what you'd like written in the 'Notes' section at checkout.

How often do you add new beads to your shop?
Hmmm. How long is a strand of beads? The thing is, you see, beadmaking is a creative thing and without wishing to sound like an arty farty numpty, creativity is a fickle beast. Some weeks I'll create a bazillion beads (okay, okay, maybe three hundred) and some weeks my creative battery is flat and I can't make a basic spacer bead for toffee. So, I add beads whenever I have them. All I can suggest is that you check my shop and Instagram often for new bead news.

I want to learn lampwork. Do you teach?
Not at the moment, sorry.

What glass did you use for those beads?
I have a Tumblr blog where I have documented the glass I used to make some of my past beads. This was for my own benefit - I've started umpteen paper notebooks full of bead recipes but then they inevitably get comandeered for shopping and to-do lists, so the Tumblr is a more permanent and easily-accessible record - but it may be useful to you too. I also share bead recipes on my blog.

Do you do wholesale or a bulk discount of any kind?
No. I don't do wholesale because my beads are handamde items and I am not a machine. I can't increase the speed at which I make beads and there is only one of me with only one pair of hands. These basic factors mean that my beads and wholesale do not compute.

Do you take commissions or special orders?
Sorry but no; I find commissions too restrictive. It's that creative arty-farty numpty thing again. Whenever I've taken commissions and special orders in the past I've felt pressured to make the beads; not pressure from the customer, but pressure from myself. This doesn't bode well with the bead 'mojo' and I find myself not enjoying the whole beadmaking process as much as I normally do. I work much better if I sit at the torch and just go with the flow and experiment with my own ideas rather than try to work to someone else's brief. I know that this probably sounds a bit odd but I am sure that some other lampworkers will understand what I mean. Please also note that I do not make beads with cremation ashes, be they human or animal. This isn't because I am squeamish or weird about death; it's simply something that I have chosen not to do.

There's a set of beads in your gallery that I love. Can you re-make them for me?
Again, it's a no, sorry. What I love about lampwork is that a lot of the beads are one-offs. Also, inconsistencies in glass production means that it is impossible to recreate some beads because the glass I originally used just doesn't exist anymore. Any beads that I am willing and/or able to remake can be found on my Available to Order page.

How and where did you learn to make beads?
I'm totally self-taught. I've never had a beadmaking lesson in my life. All I know I have learned from books, websites and through practice. Please click here for information on how I started out beadmaking.

Can I come and see what beads you have for sale?
I get asked this one a lot. I don't have any bead stock. There is nothing to see here, except for a very messy workbench, a heap of stringer the size of the Isle Of Wight and and a water jug full of beads that went bad.

Please can I come and watch you at work in your shed?
When I was in art lessons at school I hated it when the teacher came and stood next to me and peered over my shoulder at what I was drawing or painting. (My apologies if you're reading this Mr Barker or Mr Smith!) Similarly I don't like people peering over my shoulder at me making beads. It kind of puts me off. Plus we all know that sod's law dictates that when we want something to go right it'll go wrong. I'd be trying to act all professional beadmaker and I'd make some terrible schoolgirl error and you'd leave thinking I was rubbish, so again, it's a no I'm afraid.