Whether you are a fine artist, beader, book artist, crafts person, hobbyist or part of the maker movement, our goal is to provide you with unusual supplies for all of your creative endeavors. We feature unique beads, art and crafts supplies, collage, mixed media and altered art supplies, beads, jewelry supplies, vintage photographs, art rubber stamps, embellishments and craft items that go beyond the unusual to add extraordinary touches to all kinds of arts and crafts including jewelry, mixed media, assemblage, fiber arts, quilting, collage and scrapbook projects and more. We hope to be your go to resource for all of your art hobbies, crafts and maker projects.

Our focus is on unique beads and vintage ephemera.  We add to that a unique mix of cutting edge art supplies and craft items.
Our collection ranges from fabrics, fibers and vintage sewing notions to metal embellishments; artful journals, jewelry and jewelry supplies, in particular, ceramic beads, Chinese sea glass beads, lampwork glass beads and hand-carved bone beads. We have a large selection of skull beads in a variety of materials: especially bone skull beads and ceramic skull beads.
Our cards, notebooks & gifts (see our books also) make unique gifts for all occasions. The ever-popular cell phone lariats; originally designed to dangle charms from your cell phone, can also be used to dangle things from your other artwork!  A selection of vintage photographs features a variety of images from leading photographers and other artists from around the world.
We love the thrill of the hunt: seeking out items that can't be found everywhere and items which are rare or in short supply. We include folk art objects from around the world with a particular emphasis on unique objects from Mexico and Latin America that can help you create your very own version of Mexican folk art; tools to enhance your crafts and creative expression; inspirational books, books for altering and other craft items. See also our expanding selection of Day of the Dead items.

Vintage handcarved textile block stamps are continuously restocked so be sure to see our current selection. Our wood block stamps are handcarved from seasoned wood in Afghanistan by skilled artisans and can be used to create wonderful patterns and textures on fabric, paper, metal mesh and many other surfaces.
We re-stock vintage photographs from many different historical eras frequently. You will find these listed in a separate category in our online catalogue.
Be sure to see our growing collection of skull beads in various materials and sizes.

We were one of the first companies to offer the stapleless stapler and now have it in an assortment of solid and translucent colors. We have both the magic stapleless stapler design and the original staplefree stapler.

Our gallery of samples and tutorials on walnut ink and other step by step instructions in the projects area are areas of the site that you will want to visit to jump-start your creative journey.

We sincerely hope that you enjoy exploration of our site. Feel free to contact using the contact form with any comments or questions.

We have an array of projects that can help you get the most out of our products

Here's our Intro to Book Arts which includes some definitions and links.
Check out our gallery of artists' books.
Please see a sampling of books from the Pittsburgh Book Arts Collective . . .

These techniques will be sure to light your imagination and should serve only as a starting point for your artistic experiments.

Be sure to visit these links

To see the live art bites weblog click HERE
To see the Anima Designs weblog, click HERE

an·i·ma ( n -m )
n.1. The inner self of an individual; the soul.; 2. In Jungian psychology: a. The unconscious or true inner self of an individual,as opposed to the persona, or outer aspect of the personality. b. The feminine inner personality, as present in the unconscious of the male.It is in contrast to the animus, which represents masculine characteristics.

[Latin anima; see an - in Indo-European Roots.]
an - Important derivatives are: anima, animal, animus, equanimity, unanimous. To breathe. Suffixed form *an -mo-. a. anima, animadvert, animal, animate, (animato), animism, animosity, animus;equanimity, longanimity, magnanimous, pusillanimous, unanimous, from Latin animus,reason, mind, spirit, and anima, soul, spirit, life, breath; b. anemo-, from Greek anemos, wind.

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