| Original Message: Missing in action on this post - until now! |
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Hi friends, it is so good to browse through these introductions from years ago! I have been collecting beads since about 1997 - before that I collected netsuke and art glass paperweights with my grandmother. About the time of this thread - 2008 - I took a job at Utah State University and my focus was diverted somewhat as I ran large conferences across the nation until retiring last fall. October 1, 2019 was my independence day and getting back into active bead involvement was the best retirement gift I could have received. Over the years I did go to Tucson bead group meet ups multiple times and was happy to get back there this February (2020) and re-connect with bead friends old (and new). My background in bead collecting is wrapped up with that of my father, Gary Anderson, and my late husband, Dario Brisighella. My husband was Italian and I am an enrolled member of the Lakota Rosebud Sioux tribe by way of my father, who was in the Air Force. Living in Europe (France and Germany) as a pre-teen, we traveled regularly to Switzerland, Italy, yes Murano, to Idar Oberstein, more. My father did his own lapidary work and I still have opals and other cabochons he ground. So when he branched out into collecting Venetian beads, it was a natural progression. He was the instigator. On one trip to Paris on business, Dario and I found a bunch of blue chevrons at one of the flea markets and we meant to give them to my dad, but we started doing some reading, research, bought the Picard volumes of bead books and we were hooked. About that time, my father bought multiple strands of seven layer blue chevrons from Tunkara via Russ Nobbs and I helped him high-grade them and sell the extras. We ran into Art Seymour at the Fort Bridger Rendezvous and bit by bit all three of us built pretty large personal collections of Art's work. Art became a family friend, visiting us on his road trips - us in Utah and my father in Nebraska. Art contracted with me to sell beads for him on ebay and mostly I used my commissions to buy more of his beads. Still in love with the delicate millefiori of my grandmother's paperweights from Murano and Perthshire, my favorite beads were the intricate venetian ones from late 1800's to early 1900's. Little works of art, each of them. Chevrons were a new and addictive branch to that ever growing tree of our bead obsession. Then... a new kind of bead I was not aware of yet - I was at a Salt Lake City antique show when I ran into Richard Stamm who was selling his Indonesian bead collection. I bought a lovely blue pelangi bead for my husband and brought it home. The next day, we drove back and Dario bought the rest of his collection! Of course I could not stop there and bought single beads from various of our dealer friends - then when Bassem Elias was offering three amazing strands of Indonesian jatim and pelangi, we took them off his hands. One strand went to my friend Linda who had also caught the bead bug. Having branched off in that earlier timeline, Linda and I both started collecting Islamic era beads from all the most notable and dear dealer friends (smile). As our interest grew so did our library and I believe I have just about every book on collectible beads there is. The most important collectible from this bead obsession though has been the collection of friends and acquaintances. Abdul Touray and his family have become friends, visiting us here in Logan Utah often over the years. The Tucson meet ups are a constant reunion of bead friends and opportunity to get closer, develop more personal relationships, and learn from so many so very knowledgeable in this field. My father and I were quite often at the Glendale Bead Museum and I met Paula in Washington DC for dimsum and bead museum fun while I was running a conference there. I have yet to make it to Carmel to see John and Ruth's museum but it's on my list of things I want to do. My rendezvous friends are part of the fellowship of beads too - it strikes me how wide a range of backgrounds and knowledge we have among us all here at BCN. I am thrilled that Thomas is opening the Prescott bead museum and trading post - it's like a step through time to a golden era that is framed in history and memories of those who have left us. All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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