I live and travel in a small zone. I do the best I can to find beads where I live. The internet has opened up a much larger world of bead hunting to me, yet I still build on my original collections acquired at swaps and thrifts and yard sales.

My first bead, the one that started the hunt, is in this photo. It is a gilded oval with looped swirls and pale blue dots. I remember clearly finding this bead at the bottom of a cardboard box of broken jewelry on the counter of an old Goodwill. I found many loose beads in that box over time, but this bead was very special and I wanted to learn more, find more of them. Alas I have never found it's mate, not even in the 198 pages of the Sick collection of photos. There are some similar gilded, looped, dotted beads, but not this exact combination. I was so excited after finding this bead I proceeded to remove every larger piece of jewelry in the box, to the bemusement of the clerk, hoping to find more. Her comment was 'how did we miss that one?'. Urk. Then she charged me more for that one... 25 cents. Most beads were 5 cents and 10 cents.

This is no longer the management style at Goodwill stores, so no more picking and choosing loose beads. That particular store had a fire and never reopened.

The other beads have no particular memories attached. They probably came from bags of broken jewelry, or assorted lots found here and there, or out of bags of buttons. Floor identified the two upper left as Czech.

I have more beads in my collection, but these are an early set of lone beads I've always sought to build up. They have proved more difficult to acquire than trade beads. I fade in and out of bead collecting. I'm pleased to see more of this 'type' available since my last online hunt.