Whether you’re nostalgic for long Sunday afternoons spent at grandma’s or just want a cheap, fun way to get some new jewellery, Perlerei can help.
This super-cute shop is the place to go for beads, clasps, strings and all the other baubles and bits you may need if you’d like to make your own necklaces (the price of a bead goes from 5 cents to €2.50; necklaces average €10).
You’ll find rows of beads sorted by colour and bowls of tools like pincers (for jewellery – not the depressing gardening ones!) in the two sunny rooms. And mentioning light here is not a vain detail – remember, we are talking about stringing and knotting very tiny things on an (even tinier) piece of thread.
But Perlerei is as much a workshop as a shop; you don’t just choose your beads, pay for them and leave. You can stay as long as you’d like to make your necklace and, if needed, ask for help and advice from owner Meike Köster, a bead-fanatic since the age of 13 who got fed up with office work and used her huge collection to open shop.
Perlerei is a great spot for a friend’s birthday or a mother-inlaw’s name day – you can book the whole shop for €10 per hour, no matter how many participants there are. And if you’re feeling really lazy, you can always forgo DIY and buy the jewellery Köster designs and makes herself – we promise, we won’t tell!
