Beadworks

Crafty types love Jo Penny’s lavish, colourful den, Beadworks. Beaders are well-served at Beadworks, which offers thousands and thousands of beads in every material and hue imaginable, plus all of the tools of the trade —hammers, pliers, bead looms — and findings such as clasps, headpins and ear wires. But the welcoming, bedazzling space pulls in plenty of non-beaders too, whether they’re after handmade jewellery or just plain curious.

Much of the endless assortment of beads are packaged in little pill bottles stacked on shelves by colour leading all the way to the back of the shop. Within the pinks or blues or greens or teals, the beads are ordered even further by colour gradient. “I’m a little bit OCD. To keep track of the inventory in here is pretty mindboggling. But it’s all up here,” Jo says, pointing to her cranium. “It’s not computerized or anything. It’s just a bit of obsessive compulsive behaviour keeping everything in its place.”