The German store Star Bijou has its own house brand of beads called Spiritbeads. Star Bijou has a fun online presence on Instagram and a warm and amiable feeling really comes through in their social media posts. Today I’ve got some photos of their Maneki-Neko beads in brass and silver. These little cats are all over the place in Japan as they are thought to bring good luck and sometimes one paw is moving up and down. It’s no secret that I love going to Japan. Where else can you pick up noodles for your soup as they are sliding down a bamboo trough?

Or eat freshly made Hello Kitty cakes?

Or see Sumo wrestlers riding bikes?

Or watch hundreds of people jump and chant in unison while giant fruit is being towed around a lake and water shoots at them? (Tokyo Disney Sea!) Go to Japan people, seriously. 😀
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The Maneki-Neko Bead comes in silver (€48) and brass (€35). They are a really nice size and don’t get lost amongst other beads. That’s the Ohm Beads Dreamscape in the middle and I’ve also used the Redbalifrog brass Stars stoppers. 

The detail is adorable and I love the sweet face of the cat. That’s the brass one below. 

Here’s the silver one up close with some Trollbeads. They are all uniques except for the Diamond Bead, Pink, on the right. 

I think the brass Meneki-Neko also looks good with beads that have a bit of copper sparkles in them, like the Trollbeads Hong Kong Skyline beads. 

Here’s another look. 

Lastly, I made up a pretty pink bracelet using both cats. Below left to right are the Trollbeads Spacer Connected Love, Pandora Geometric Facet, True Beadz True Blossom Baby Pink, Trollbeads Summer Dot, Maneki-Neko Brass, Pandora Flower Garden, True Beadz True Touch Baby Pink, Pandora Cherry Blossom, Maneki-Neko Silver, Trollbeads Asian Hearts, True Beadz True Blossom Baby Pink, Pandora Geometric Facet and Trollbeads Heart Spacer. 

I will be using these Meneki-Neko beads a lot, as I really love silver beads that are about the same size of glass beads. That’s why I’m forever using the Redbalifrog Frangipanis Forever beads. I notice that Star Bijou also sell Redbalifrog, Ohm Beads and Trollbeads, as well as other brands. I just used the Google Translate option to flip their website to English and was able to navigate around just fine and have heard good things about their customer service. Have a great weekend everyone! Coming up next week will be more Spiritbeads and Trollbeads. 

Disclosure: For this blog I may receive some items as promotional samples.