I haven't make the piece your speaking of but would love to see it. I have made jewelry and such out of buttons for quite a while.
You can find nice seed beads in several online places...

www.shipwreckbeads.com
www.firemountaingems.com
www.artbeads.com
www.auntiesbeads.com

and the advertisers in the magazines are also wonderful leads on good product as well.

A good price on display items for me come from NileCorp.
www.nilecorp.com you can also purchases pieces on eBay and the other websites I mentioned before.

I'm not sure what a magical crimper is but using a crimper properly does take some practice to make perfect.You can check on the "How To's" on any of the websites I listed above for help.

Hope this helps a bit...
ginger

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Kidd, I don't make the jewelry but do use seed beads in some of my crafts. I've seen a nice selection of seed beads right at Walmart. They have the black ones (of course) but they also have all different colors and the irresdescent ones which I think are super pretty. They also have them at Michael's and Joann's, Hobby Lobby, etc. I too would love to see your creations when you've made them. I think the handmade jewelry is awesome, they carry all the goodies for it at Michael's too.

Sal