Art and Craft Supplies

If you’re going to be a crafter, you need to have ready access to art and craft supplies for whatever craft you might desire to work on. Now that we have craft superstores, the Internet and all sorts of other sources for art and craft supplies, it’s a lot easier for us than it was for the crafters who came before us.

Still, the process of procuring art and craft supplies can be daunting because there are so many choices. Here’s a guide for what to buy wear and why.

Perhaps the first place you should look for art and craft supplies is your locally owned specialized shops. The most common craft shops you will find if you live in a decent sized town include beading, scrapbooking and yarn stores. You might also find a rubber stamping store, and, of course, fabric stores.

In larger cities there might be shops dedicated to art supplies, needlepoint, quilting or even candle making.

If you have access to these specialized stores for art and craft supplies, by all means use them.

It’s great to shop at locally owned stores because you are actually supporting your local economy and helping small business people. Especially if you can find a store in your area that sells the kind of supplies you need, these stores will have a broader selection that is more specialized, instead of just including the basics that general crafters will need.

Befriending your local art and craft supplies sellers will help you in the long run, too. If you ever have problems with a craft and need someone knowledgeable to ask, your local craft shop is a wonderful place to go for advice.

The main negative about local craft shops is usually the price. Because they have a more specialized product, they have a smaller clientele and need to sell more merchandise at a higher price in order to pay their expenses. Because they often have better quality products, it is usually worth it to pay some markup.

Another potential problem with a specialty store is that, if you do a lot of different crafts, you might end up at several different stores to get everything you need, ultimately costing you more in time and money than one-stop shopping would.

Most towns and cities of a decent size now have at least one what I call crafts superstore. I’m sure you know the ones, those stores like Michaels, Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann that seem to have art and craft supplies for just about every craft under the sun, as well as holiday decorations, fabrics and much more.

These stores are impressive, and I was thrilled when my smallish town got one probably 10 years ago. I still go there a lot, when I need something quick or need items for multiple projects.

The main advantage of these stores is that they are everywhere and have large selections, so they tend to have much better prices than your mom and pop craft stores. They are like the Wal-Marts of the craft world, great for people looking for the lowest-common-denominator supplies, who need something in a hurry at a good price.

These stores are sometimes difficult to navigate. Because they try to cover so much territory it is easy to get overwhelmed and leave without being able to find what you want.

They also tend to speak to the average crafter, maybe someone without a lot of experience, someone who needs the basics, someone who isn’t making money from their crafts. You probably won’t be able to find really fancy craft items like silk fabrics or alpaca yarn at your craft superstore. But if you don’t want that stuff, a craft superstore will be great for you.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for locally, you can always turn to the Internet. There is a huge proliferation of art and craft supplies websites these days, which can offer you either the local specialty shop or the craft superstore atmosphere.

Because I can’t possibly list websites for every craft specialty there is, here’s a quick run down of some of the bigger art and craft supplies websites.

• Mister Art specializes in supplies for painting and drawing but also has items for scrapbooking, polymer clay and more.
• Craft Supplies Online is a discount art and crafts supply store, covering everything from clocks to resin figures, modeling compound to picture frames.
• Dick Blick is one of my favorites for its amazing variety of high-quality products, mostly having to do with painting and paper, but also mosaics, beading and more.
• Factory Direct Craft reminds me of a craft superstore. It’s got stuff for weddings, country crafts, soap making supplies and just about anything else you could think to want.
• Create for Less has a ton of supplies for all sorts of crafts, including yarn, rubber stamps, kits and much more.

Price is usually a big advantage in shopping online, especially from the larger websites. They have a lot more selection in their warehouses than even the biggest stores could have. Consider Amazon.com as an example; they beat almost everyone on price because they have huge supplies of just about anything anyone would want. A lot of these art and craft supply wholesalers are the same way.

Convenience is another plus. You can shop and order at any time you like, in whatever state of comfort you like. Also, you'll be able to find literally anything you need (if it's made) online, which you can't say for even the biggest of local shops.

Usually you have to pay for shipping your items. This might come out as a wash because most places online you don't have to pay sales tax (though that will probably change in the future) and you can often get free shipping if you buy enough.

The major disadvantage to shopping online is that you don't really get to see what you are buying until you've already purchased it. Computer monitors are notoriously unreliable when it comes to giving you the correct color, and you don't get to touch things, smell them, or otherwise use your senses to determine if the thing you think you want is really what you want.

Still, buying online makes it possible for you to purchase almost anything you want, including art and craft supplies you couldn't find anywhere else. If all else fails, hit the Internet and you're sure to find what you're looking for.

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