Pearl Paint

My grandmother loves to make necklaces and bracelets out of beads and crystals, and while we were at New York she had this notion that there just must be hoards and hoards of them in Chinatown. We searched high and low for these beads, never finding them. But, our search did bring us to this Pearl Paint. So, if anyone knows where we can buy a box-full-o-beads for very little money, please leave a detailed comment =)

Pearl’s chain isn’t everywhere in the US…only a few chosen states are lucky enough to have a Pearl! Pearl is best art supplies store in my eyes. You can find great sketch/drawing tablets, pens, and tons of different paint brushes. Pearl still carries some of the best line of colored pencils that have ever been made; Prismacolor’s. Before Prismacolor was merged by Sanford a few years back, they were made differently and in my opinion worked much better. Pearl is the place for great portfolio’s as well, they have quite a few to choose from! :-)

I was in Chinatown, my friend/tour guide took me to this store. She asked if I had heard of it, before, and I said no. Then, when I finally went there, I remembered my graphic design teacher telling me about it, because he did a proposal for a new corporate identity for this company.

I bought some supplies to draw a portrait of my friend. It wasn’t used to stores being more than 2 stories. I found the prices to be very reasonable, plus they offered student discounts.

Pearl is easily the largest art supply store in the city. It takes up a whole building on Canal Street, and they have pretty much anything you’d need at pretty good prices. There’s a 10% discount for students and teachers. I came here all the time during art school. The first few weeks of each semester are pretty crowded, so get a jump on your school list or come during the day if you can.

Their only painful quirk is that you have to pay on every floor, so if you’re just picking up a few things on a busy day, you’re better off going somewhere else…