
{"id":3679,"date":"2008-10-23T07:17:44","date_gmt":"2008-10-23T15:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=3679"},"modified":"2008-10-23T07:17:44","modified_gmt":"2008-10-23T15:17:44","slug":"is-carrboro-becoming-a-beaders-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/10\/23\/is-carrboro-becoming-a-beaders-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Carrboro becoming a beader&#8217;s heaven?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Clai Watkins<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Courtesy of The Carrboro Commons<\/em><a href='http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/bead.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/bead-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Clai Watkins. David Sterling sits in front of the $5 wall of beads at Rare Earth Beads in Carrboro. Sterling is the owner of Rare Earth Beads, which opened in Carrboro on Sept. 19.\" title=\"bead\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" align=\"left\" size-medium wp-image-3680\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/bead-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/bead.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Carrboro may be the smallest town in the state to have two bead shops.<br \/>\nWith the Sept. 19 opening of Rare Earth Beads on West Main Street in Carrboro, local beaders now have two shops in which to draw a bead, as it were.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nDavid Sterling, owner of Rare Earth Beads, is not worried about coming to a small town that already has a large, well-established bead store. Sterling says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have a very different business and a very different clientele. I personally wish them every success. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not doing this business to be competitive to anybody.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Casey Schlatter, owner of The Original Ornament, sees things a little bit differently. In reference to Rare Earth Beads, Schlatter says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They are competition \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in the same town.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>According to Sterling, many patrons of The Original Ornament already have come into his store.<\/p>\n<p>Sterling attributes this not to advertising, but instead because \u00e2\u20ac\u0153beading people are a community; they talk to each other \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 they want to check out whatever is new out there.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>It will be no surprise to Schlatter if she begins to see some of her regular customers less often.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The thing about beaders,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Schlatter says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153is that they shop everywhere\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. There is no question that our customers at The Original Ornament will, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure, go to Rare Earth and shop.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The Carrboro bead shop owners have yet to have any contact. In fact, Schlatter says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was news to me that he was opening.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Even though The Original Ornament will have new and unfamiliar competition, Schlatter says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are going to continue doing what we have always done.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Although the two shops are similar, the owners at both stores agree that they have many differences as well.<\/p>\n<p>Sterling says that at Rare Earth Beads, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are catering to a more established jewelry-making market, and also our focus is natural stones.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Also, Sterling said his store is very different from The Original Ornament in terms of base metal.<br \/>\nAccording to Schlatter, The Original Ornament\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s target audience is mainly middle-aged women who want to make jewelry.<\/p>\n<p>Schlatter says that at The Original Ornament, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We carry different kinds of beads, and our basic business models are different, as far as customer service and what we carry and things like that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She goes on to say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little hard to explain to a non-beader, but if you came into our store and then went into their store, then you would get a different feel.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Rare Earth Beads\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 new location in Carrboro is only 12 miles away from its original location in Durham. Sterling says that over the five years that Rare Earth Beads has been open in Durham he has had a constantly growing demand for a second location in Carrboro.<\/p>\n<p>In order to promote the grand opening of Rare Earth Beads in Carrboro, the store is offering a free class with the purchase of $25 or more. According to manager Tracey Mallon, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a basic stringing class, so you learn how to design a necklace or a bracelet and put it together and put a clasp on it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Also, in honor of its new location, Rare Earth Beads had a grand opening sale Oct. 10-13.<\/p>\n<p>Sterling is nothing but excited about his new location in Carrboro. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is what I love to do. I love beads,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think that the most important quality in a successful business is the passion that you have for it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\n<em><br \/>\nClai Watkins is a UNC student writing for The Carrboro Commons, a bi-weekly online lab newspaper for Jock Lauterer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Community Journalism class at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Clai Watkins Courtesy of The Carrboro Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellany"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}