I like stopping in to Heart Bead even when I don't have a project to work on. They get me inspired and in a good mood with their helpful, friendly staff and all the fun crafting stuff. When I do go in with a purpose, they've always got what I need and can show me how to do it if I'm not sure how. read more

What a great place to come hang out with the daughters. They said, how come we don't have such a beautiful store like this in downey, california. Make sure you stop by and make a necklace...this place has it all and to top it off the workers are the friendliest people on earth! read more

Spent Saturday morning downtown Arcata and my daughter decided to shop here to make a necklace for her grandmother. The place was BUSY but we still got great service, great advice and a fun time. I believe her name was Chelsey, and she knew her stuff!!! Appreciated her taking the time to help and advise us, and the fact she was attentive to others waiting. Well organized, reasonably prices, and fun. read more

Whenever I need to come up with a reasonably priced gift for someone, I come here. I get to make a personalized piece of jewelry or a bookmark, and the staff is super helpful. I am indecisive as can be and they're always super sweet to me. read more

I always think I could make jewelry myself, but then, where would I get all the parts? The great thing about this store is that you can make your jewelry there (with tons of help) and just buy the pieces you need... they even charge by the inch for your chains and strings so that you don't have to buy anything in bulk. They were so friendly.. I just wished I lived closer! read more

2 stares because I am not a crafty person and this store helped me immensely with my Christmas gifts, and have a great selection of beads and other jewelry type things. The other 3 stars are missing because the employees and the owner are quite rude and unenthusiastic about helping with what they said is a "large project", and even seemed to give me attitude so much so that I almost felt bad for coming into their shop for help. Might give this place another chance, but only if I need on item done. read more

Came here to get a gift for my daughter to bring back to Southern California. Great customer service. Very neat store.

Wonderful selection of beads. A line of locally produced pieces and lots of very helpful employees. Prices are high and you pay top dollar for locally made products, but they have some beautiful stuff. read more

I brought my daughter here with 10 friends for her 11th birthday. The staff is so helpful and kind. I really appreciated the time they spent with the girls helping them pick out beads and helping to put the jewelry together. I picked out some beautiful amethysts and she turned them into amazing earrings. I love the atmosphere too. Highly recommend for a party! read more

Great spot with a good selection. employees are helpful and knowledgeable about jewelry making.

Heart Bead is average in terms of brick-and-mortar stores. Online places offer larger selections and better prices, so brick-and-mortar places need something to make it worth my spending extra money with them. For me, this comes down to customer service. Great customer service can be hard to get at Heart Bead, depending on who is working. For the store itself, I give 3 stars. Service is more like 1 star lately. Several times I just wanted to get out ASAP because employees on opposite sides of the store were having loud conversations about their personal lives and I was stuck in the middle, having them look past me and talk around my head. Once I asked a woman who had been in the back room whether they had bulk packs of a certain kind of jump ring, she said no but that one of the counter folks could make me a packet at the bulk price. She called someone over and asked them to make me a bulk packet and when then the person rang it up at regular price -- a simple misunderstanding -- I mentioned that it was a bulk pack. She insisted it wasn't a bulk pack, I explained what had transpired, and she still didn't believe me. Instead of going to ask, she kept arguing about it and treating me like I was trying to get away with something. Finally she said "ok, I'll give it to you for that price *this* time." Yeah, ya think? Numerous other times I've had people cop an attitude with me (rude faces and eye-rolling included) over something as silly as me filling up the "misc" slot in my muffin tin (bead shopping cart) so I had to start dropping them in other slots instead, slots that were marked with prices (what's a girl to do?). Not a huge deal, the prices are easy to look up (and i remembered them all), yet I've been given a lecture on proper muffin tin usage twice now. Excuse me for buying SO MUCH at your store that my tin overfloweth. Want me to shop somewhere else from now on? NO PROBLEM. But the last straw for me was when I went in there and spent around $200, used my loyalty card for $40 off, and somewhere in the packing up of all the tiny beads, I didn't get my change. Not a huge deal. This means both me AND the cashier spaced it. My fiancee didn't remember seeing me get my change either. I called them as soon as I realized what happened. In every money-handling or cashier type job i've ever worked, they'd want to know where the extra dough came from in the register, so I figured this was as good for them as it was for me. The person on the phone was rude and unprofessional. She told me that there was "no way of knowing if I was telling the truth" so they couldn't give me my money back even though I explained that wasn't the point, I wasn't necessarily trying to get my money back so much as I was trying to keep them informed (I've had jobs where I had to balance everyone's drawer at the end of the day ... I would want to know why the drawers were over or under!!). She kept insisting that I might be lying, and she couldn't give me the money. The bottom line is this: If she didn't know how handle the situation or couldn't because she's not a manager, then the thing to do is go GET a manager. Instead she told me "well, like, not to be mean or anything, but your money is your responsibility not ours so, i mean..." and trailed off. Really? Is that the store's official policy? I recognized her voice as the one who had helped me earlier, so either she was being defensive because she realized she made a mistake or she just wasn't very good at her job (or she was trying to get rid of me because she pocketed the "extra" money?). Frustrated, I argued with her a little more and asked if there was someone else I could talk to but she said, strangely, that she'd already talked to the manager about it and that the register wasn't over (which was weird of her to bring up after everything else she'd said). She asked if I wanted to leave my name and number, and I laughed and said I doubted that it would get passed on to the manager anyway. She responded with "ok, so are we cool then?" I think I let out an exasperated "ugh, whatever..." and just hung up. I know that finding good employees in a college town can be difficult, but it's not impossible. Easy solution for me is to simply not shop there. read more

Cool beads but one of the ladies who works there is condescending and doesn't think people are capable of creating jewelry unless they are versed in bead discourse. read more

originally came in looking to make a pair of earrings and left with the earrings and three necklaces! everyone that was working was tremendously helpful and made me feel so welcomed while sharing their jewelry making knowledge. will definitely be back next time in in arcata read more

I had a great experience at Heart Bead today. The store had an inspiring collection, the staff were super helpful and friendly. I will go back soon and I recommend Heart Bead for anyone wanting to give personalized gifts. You can make them right on site. read more