We have in particular been looking at a few types of stones, comparing the quality and variety of beads, to get the measure of the various shops. We've looked at tourquoise, hechi beads, carnelian, rutilated quartz, aventurine, a nice spread of moderately priced but distinctive beads. By comparing, some places stand out as having a consistent stock, good findings and tools, others it's catch as catch can. Some have only a few types, or just small beads, etc. Yes, Kat, I'd love to see what some of your bookmarks are. The site that requires a tax id number is earthstone, but if you take a look at their rutilated quartz hardly anyone can hold a candle to their selection. Very nice hechi and tourquoise also. (Fire Mountain has a lot of types, but only two small rutilated quartz beads available, but I made sure to bookmark them.) Looks like a case of shopping around, the tourquoise one place, the onyx another. There's a place called with an interesting smattering of stuff, called Monsterslayer (this place is in New Mexico, and Monster Slayer was one of the stricken twins in Navajo mythology).

I suspect the forms may be a formality only. I don't want a public record of a "business" that may never get off the ground, just to enable us to buy the beads we're interested in. So thanks for the good suggestions. I agree with Fred about the tools--what I've seen in some of the online catalogs can probably be found as less expensive tools for other businesses. A visit to the local hardware and fabric store is called for!

Kat, do you have a preferred thread or wire for stringing stone beads? Do you knot between them if you use thread?

Maggie