For the past few days, I have been bothered by a question bouncing around in my head. Some of you might have strong feelings about this so I decided to post it here. If you have thoughts or insights, I hope you’ll share them. This is not a thesis I’m seeking to defend and it’s very possible I am ill-informed or narrow in my thinking with some of what I will share below. If you have heat to bring, I can take it – just know I’m hoping to explore an idea, not position myself as an expert on the matter. The question is this:

Has the golden age of glass bead collecting passed?

Ugly, I know. Personally, I find the question deflating. I’d love the answer to be a resounding “NO.” Yet, I still think it’s worth exploring because regardless of the answer, now may be a good time to consider some themes and projects that could be helpful for our passion today and for others in the future.

Most of my feelings on this are tied to my own experiences and what I have valued or taken enjoyment in over the past 30 years of collecting. I should point out I’m about 40-years-old, so keep that in mind if you are inclined to compare your experiences to mine. You might be thinking that a 10-year-old or teen can’t really be a hardcore collector, but those years were incredibly formative for me when it comes to beads so despite a small collection at that time, I think it must be considered.

To fully explore my thoughts, it’s important to construct the following framework. One of my hypotheses is that most of us came to bead collecting through some sort of associated interest. For example, there are cultural enthusiasts for whom beads are a manifestation of a broader cultural interest, ie: Africa and its related arts, First Nation peoples and cultures, American history (rendezvous types) etc. For others, bead collecting may be more about production methods and artistic exploration. These might be artists who explore creative concepts and process through beads. There are probably some glass enthusiasts here that collect beads, paper weights, figurines, etc. There are likely jewelry types that love wearing beads and (I gotta say it) there may be others who associate beads with their youth or cultural movements. Some are true academic researchers who study beads in a classical sense. The source of our collecting interests is important because it may indicate where bead collecting will go in the future. Are there other affinities that brought you to collecting?

Next, I’m thinking of seminal moments that have happened over the past thirty years. My sense is many of you could add a lot to this list and do so better than I. Here’s what comes to my mind though this is a brain dump, so please know I’ve not tried to list these chronologically.
-- Polymer clay emerges providing opportunities for experimentation and exploration
-- A renaissance of lampwork emerges from the Pacific Northwest.
-- Society of Glass Bead Makers is founded (?)
-- Several bead shows make the circuit in the early 90s.
-- The sudden influx of contemporary beads on the market generally, including India face beads, India Chevrons, Peruvian clay beads, those colorful drawn glass beads, Chinese lampwork and mille beads, Pandora-style beads, molded glass, and Chinese chevrons that had everyone in a tizzy
-- Beadcollector.net. Yay!
-- Ebay and trends toward online bead sales
-- The internet generally
-- Brick and mortar bead stores enjoy varying levels of success (at least in my area)
-- Lois Dublin’s A History of beads and other seminal publications
-- Shifting winds in business on Murano (which I am too ill-informed to articulate very well)
-- Perhaps changes in the look and feel of bead shows in Tuscon (???)
-- Proliferation of African exports and their availability (I know very little about this, actually)
-- For you hard core collectors of antiquities, I’m sure you could describe important developments that impacted the availability of bead related artifacts on the market. I’m thinking ancient antiquities as well as things like the availability of D’zi beads, coral, etc.
--The disappearance of two bead museums. Note that I don’t say failure because I don’t know what happened, just that they existed, but no longer do.

With these two big ideas on the table, let me synthesize how I see them interacting now or in the future. Where illustrative, I’ll use myself as an example.
-- For me, bead collecting or even bead viewing was/is about the thrill of the hunt. In my early days, I had to work hard to find or view beads. These actions cast additional lights on my bead mental map (ie: “Oh, I didn’t know chevron beads came in those colors”). Today, the thrill of seeing beads I’d not seen before is largely dead. Bead photos are prolific and the Internet has placed lots of eye candy at my figure tips.
-- As some of you have described, I too found great opportunities for experimentation in polymer clay. It was a new media with new possibilities. But it isn’t new anymore. That’s not to say “it’s all been done,” not by a long shot, but the novelty has passed and I’m not sure people are still using clay to explore early glass production processes.
-- I really had to work hard to start making glass beads in the early to mid 90’s. I made lots of phone calls. It was like detective work. Today the stain glass shop not three miles from my house sells glass rods and everything you need for lampworking. In my early years, people like Brian Kirkvliet and Patty Frantz were like mythical bead demigods. Today, anyone can make glass beads. My point is this, beadmaking was a big part of my bead enthusiasm. I hypothesis that bead making was a boon to bead collecting. I’m not sure that is the case anymore and the contemporary resurgence of bead making media and technologies is NOT going to happen again.
-- I’m uncertain as to the current state of bead exports from Africa. Some of you relate anecdotes of buying imports at insanely low prices decades ago. I don’t think that is ever going to happen again. Plus, global interest means there are deep pockets internationally and I’d be curious to know if there has been a dramatic shift, globally speaking, in where collectibles are ending up.
-- For those collecting beads as historical artifacts, we have to ask if “historicity” will apply to more contemporary beads 50 or so years down the road from now. To me the quintessential example is whether or not Chinese Chevrons will ever be considered collectibles. Are Venetian chevrons collectible because of their individual movement and history, or is it their method of creation or some other factor that makes them collectible?
--I think we must consider that some elements of bead enthusiasm are generational. Do Millennials have the same enthusiasm for beads that some Boomers do? Also, I would love to know more about what some of you Boomers plan to do with your collections - you know - when you don’t need possessions anymore. Candidly, I’m not sure what I think about museum donation. Exhibit space is a precious commodity so I’d hate to overstate any overly-romantic ideals of displaying beads for generations. A lot of awesome art and artifacts sit in storage. Some may see donation as a way of making beads available for study, but I have to ask, study by whom? Do we see a rich vibrant future for the study of glass beads? I’d love to think so, though I’m not convinced. If estate collections return to the market, what does that look like? Increasingly, highly collectible material is likely to find itself in “deep pockets.” That’s fun for some, but I don’t think it advances the craft of collecting broadly speaking. That kind of narrow outcome can’t be particularly helpful.

Well, there you go. Not all of you will relate with what I have written and that’s totally fine. I also acknowledge my thoughts reflect my own experiences. However, I’m starting to wonder if living collectors need to start thinking in terms of documenting what the past 30-50 years have meant to bead collecting. Is it possible that you are an important part of a historical narrative that should be recorded? Rick Rice’s passing shook me. Thanks to social media he’s one of those people I would call a friend but whom I never met in person. I’m so saddened by his death and I feel regret that I don’t know more about his collection, interests, experiences and the process he used to grind cane. I regret not reaching out more. There are many of you on this forum whom I’ve never met, but I want to know your stories. To me YOU are the golden age of bead collecting and you have done something remarkable.

As a community, is it worth consider the following:
-- Is there interest in collecting oral histories of bead collectors/makers?
-- Is there merit in encouraging young collectors?
-- What is the state of bead research? What is its future.
-- How do we enhance global collecting networks so that we can enjoy learning from and connecting with others around the world?
-- Are there ways we can elevate the conversations on this forum? What do want our experiences here to look like? Personally, I miss the cool bead photos and I sometimes wonder, where certain voices have gone. Can we tell more stories or share more bead collecting adventures? Can we ask more questions and have more education?

If you made it this far, thank you. My thoughts are a little disorganized, but I feel alright about sharing them with you, even if a little undercooked. I’d really love your thoughts on any or all of this.