Beads Shopping Guide for Avenue Road, Bengaluru!

Avenue Road lies at the heart of Namma Bengaluru. Like every local market this place too is always bustling with activity and every lane opens up a whole new world of shopping. Right from ethnic clothes to jewellery and accessories, this place has everything with the best possible prices in Bengaluru.

The street is lined up with hawkers selling interesting stuff all around. There are beautiful hand knit bags, Puja accessories, costume jewellery stores and home decor. Nearly all big stores have jewellery makers sitting outside

Necklace assembling on Avenue Road & Colourful bags for sale

I’ve been visiting Chikpet for the past 6 years and in every trip I’ve managed to discover a new by-lane or a new wholesale shop for anything and everything that I’d need. I even learnt jewellery making thanks to Raja Market , that happens to be on Avenue Road. You can get jewellery making tools as well as beautiful beads for making your own jewellery. You can also get it custom made instantly outside the shops in Raja Market.

From semi precious stones beads to metal beads, you can get everything here. I’d like to share with you a list of the best and most well stocked stores for buying beads on Avenue Road by order of my preference:-

M U Motiwala, Avenue Road

This store has the most beautiful semi precious beads and stones available. Most of the stuff they sell is non chinese and hence the pricing is way too high. But, they have the most exquisite semi precious stones that you may not get anywhere else. Genuine strings of Onyx, pearls, Rudraksh, topaz, coral etc. in different shapes and sizes are available. It’s a good place to buy gemstones. They also have a ready to wear section with a separate entry. Card payments accepted.

Tip: Take a good look at the display first and then ask for something specific that you may want. They are usually very co operative and someone will gladly guide you through your purchase. Fixed prices absolutely no bargaining.

Ratan Fancy Stores , Raja Market

This little store is at the heart of Raja Market. But don’t get deceived by the size of the shop. They keep jewellery making tools , spools of threads and crimping beads etc. Besides this they have a huge variety of Chinese agate strings, onyx, pearls and metal beads. So far I’ve seen the largest collection of oxidized, silver plated and gold plated beads at this store. They don’t keep pure silver beads here. They also keep pendants and costume jewellery elements that one can choose and get assembled outside the store. Basically they have everything that you want for making jewellery. There’s always a huge rush and one has to nearly wrestle for space to stand near the counter. You need to go here with a broad agenda so that you can optimise the salesperson’s time coz their attention span is very limited and they have very little patience for confused individuals (Speaking from past experience) Dealing with women on a day in and day out basis has taught them to focus on the smarter lot who knows what they have to buy 😉 Card payment accepted with additional VAT charges.

Tip: Observe the stuff that they have on display first then step inside and take a good look at what other women are buying there. Once you have a broad idea seek the salesman’s attention and ask for it. Bargaining possible only for purchases usually more than 6-7K.

Kunal Overseas, Raja Market

They have two stores in Raja Market so you can visit both. The one on ground floor has a lot of readymade jewellery, strings of Chinese beads, fancy laces and a few hair accessories too. There are three mezzanine floors here so the place is fairly spread out. You can even get packaging material like baskets, trays etc for trousseau gifting. They also keep leather strings in various colours.

The second store is on the first floor of Raja Market and goes by the same name. There’s a bigger selection of beads there so if you want to make your own jewellery don’t miss out on this store. Card payment accepted.

Tip: The store on the first floor has more selection for jewellery makers so go there first and come to the one on ground floor later. Fixed prices so no bargaining.

Jaipur Gems, #43-44, CT Street

This is yet another store that offers gemstones and beads of various types. They also keep a lot of semi precious stuff that is non chinese. Not everything they have is on display so you can ask for the specific stone string that you want and they will show it to you. The Beer topaz necklace in the picture is semi precious and was shown to me only when I asked for topaz. They also showed me a stunning smoky topaz necklace along with this. I found their stuff as genuine as Motiwala’s. They have a nice selection of ready to wear semi precious jewellery. Card payment accepted.

Tip: This store is a little hidden and just a few steps away from Motiwala. Enter from the Avenue Road for Motiwala and exit from the other side to reach this store.

Get your jewellery custom made in Raja Market

These counters are all over in Raja Market. You can buy pendants and strings and they can make the necklaces for you. They can also weave and attach thread strings to your necklaces in case you don’t want metal fasteners. Work happens instantly here and it’s cheap too.

The Gemstone in Raja Market

Chitalia Jewellers is one of my most favourite silver stores in Bengaluru and it also happens to be in Raja Market. I’ve bought some beautiful pendants, ear rings etc from here and my friends have also bought some exquisite pieces of jewellery from this place. It’s a must visit store. They specialise in temple jewellery in silver and they are the most reasonably priced.

After all this shopping , right outside Raja Market, there’s a perfect pit stop for satiating the hunger pangs 😉 and trust me its not just any other stall, it’s the famous Modern Sandwich! Do try coz its highly recommended.

So, if you’ve been wanting to visit Chickpet, for beads just follow my guide and you shall have a great time! In case you want a guide I’d be happy to oblige 🙂