Searching For Projects

Here at beadshop.com we're a little different than most online retailers. We have product to sell, just like anyone! But when you shop for a t-shirt, you're just looking for a shirt...not the materials to make it. Here we're bringing a different experience that the internet just wasn't ready for! That's because we also have Projects...and within those Projects are Samples...and within those Samples are the Products! It's a lot to keep organized, and unfortunately there is not an easy way to do it. We've worked tirelessly over the years to bring better experiences, and here are some tips and tricks to help you find exactly what you need.

To start, let's take a peek at our homepage. Right in the main navigation you'll see the word PROJECTS. Click directly on that, and you're brought to the page with all our Projects, with the most recently-done at the top. Within each Project you'll find one or more Samples. On each Sample's page you'll find ingredient lists, learning, and more.

 

However, if you hover over the word PROJECTS, a drop-down menu appears. Here's one way to help organize it all! In this drop-down you can select a type or technique. The Earrings, Bracelets, Necklaces, Tassels, and Everything Else links will bring you to pages for each type of jewelry, listed in alphabetical order by Project name. "Everything Else" is a bit of miscellany...pins, headbands, etc.
Here you'll also find Techniques. Click that to find all our Projects neatly organized by the technique used...from stringing to laddering to loom work and more! You'll also see Classic Kate Knots, all our cool knot projects from Kate! Finally, we also list our Look Books here, which are fabulous resources for inspiration.




TIP TIME! Here's an easy way to help you find something on one of these pages. Say you want to get to Farmer's Market. You could click on Projects and scroll through them all, or you could go to Bracelets and scroll down (a little easier, since it's alphabetical order). But this is a great trick: Use your device's search function. I don't mean the search on our website (more on that in a bit!), but on your own personal device. This will enable a search function that will search the words on the entire webpage and highlight them for you. This works on any website, not just ours. 

-On a Mac computer/laptop, hit COMMAND and F keys simultaneously.
-On a PC, hit the CTRL and F keys simultaneously.
Now a small search bar appears at the top right of your window, type in the word you're looking for. Poof! If you're searching for something like "Bollywood," a word which appears multiple times on the page, there will be arrows or a "next" button to help bring you to the next search result.

-On an iPhone or iPad, click the address bar.
Type in the word you're searching for. You'll see Google search results, browsing history (pages you have been to before), and finally "on this page," which is what you want to tap. The phone finds that keyword for you.

-On an Android, click the menu button.
That's the three dots in the top right corner. From here, tap "find on page" and type in your search word.



This brings us to using the search function ON our website.
As I mentioned earlier, we're a bit unique in that we have both Products and Projects to search. The search function we have is not perfect or intuitive, but it's functional! We know it's not great, which is why we've made this page--wink wink!

So. Say you are looking for a specific Project. We'll use Farmer's Market again as an example. Type "Farmer's Market" into the search bar and you'll see a drop down menu, and your eye immediately goes to the Products...check out the items above those, though! This is the hidden gem. You'll first see some suggestions and ideas automatically generated (especially if a word is spelled wrong or if we have a lot of products/projects with the keyword in the name, like "blue.")
Next, a list of blue links to specific Samples that live within the Project you're looking for.
Below that, with a small "i" icon, a link to that specific Project Page.
Finally, some Products used in the projects searched for.



As noted in the image above, this is what you see before you hit "enter" to search. You can click on any item or link in the drop-down menu, or hit "enter" to search. You're brought to a page that looks like this:



See on the left, tabs that say Products, Projects, and Pages? That's where to go! Click Projects to see individual Samples (yes, this is a bit backwards and not foolproof at all) and click Pages to get a link directly to that Project and see all the Samples.

And that's it! I hope this has been a helpful tool, and we'll be able to update this page as technology changes and if we're ever able to bring about more/better ways to search!

Happy beading...