Our names are Mark and Kate and we love to make jewellery. We both teach jewellery making techniques in the Wiltshire/Dorset area and like to explore new techniques in jewellery making including glass bead making and Precious Metal Clay designs.

Noticing the distinct lack of unusual gemstone beads available to the UK market (and at reasonable prices!) we decided to offer a selection from around the world and give you the piece of mind that ordering from UK will bring with it short shipping times and no customs charges. We've waited up to 2 months to get a strand of semi-precious beads before. That doesn't mean to say the wait isn't worth it - it's just too long!

Over the next few months we want to bring you even more of the most unusual designs and stones we can find so your jewellery will be truly unique. So please keep checking back to see what we are adding each month.

Our main focus is on semi-precious gemstone beads, providing an intense hit of colourful, unique stones in one place. Just click through the pages; one after the other to browse the selection we have.

We didn't want an e-commerce site with links leading you through several pages where you end up with something you don't like anyway! We've tried to keep navigation as simple as possible with crisp photography, only taken in daylight to show you the natural colour of the beads as accurately as possible at different angles.

Because of the natural make-up of the beads, they are not all perfect and do have inclusions, veins, dimples and patterns making them all unique and gorgeous. If you are not at all happy with your beads for whatever reason just send them back and we will refund you or replace them. We want you to shop with us for life so keeping you happy is extremely important to us!

Any suggestions you have would be very welcome and we hope you enjoy browsing the on-line bead boutique of Semi-Precious Beads......