we must preserve both beads and information about them
Re: Glass Bead Collecting: Past, Present, & Future -- Cody Post Reply Edit Forum Where am I?
Posted by: birdi Post Reply
05/23/2017, 12:33:32

There is a lot to read, but I'll make a couple of comments.

The bead industries of Venice, Czechoslovakia, and Germany have collapsed compared to the past. Much of the production has shifted to India, China, and Indonesia. I feel the need to find European made beads NOW while it's still possible to identify and find them.

Disappearance of Moretti glass rod and cane hurt American glass lampworkers hugely. Paula Franz used it to beautiful and skilled effect. Boro glass is nice, but it's just not the same, appearance-wise. Is Paula still making beads? I bought a bead from her in person, a feathered tabular bead, but unfortunately not one of her top end beads. I wanted to learn glass lampworking but didn't get very far. I'm sure Moretti glass was a satisfying product. It went away just as I began to study more about glass.

This forum has a great wealth of bead information. I would hope to see much of the information preserved beyond the tenure of the present owners, but how? There is wonderful information to be found on the internet, but it's sad to think it might all disappear one day. We have to be concerned to preserve both our beads and our information about them, daunting tasks alike.

It doesn't take long for bead knowledge to become confused in the marketplace. I'm in discussion groups for Ebay sellers. When beads are shown for identification, seldom does anyone else give 'correct' answers. Everything is 'Murano'. Few know Chinese beads from India or Japan or Venice. Campfire names shift around. In the 10 -15 years I've been bead hunting online, the word Sommerso has mostly disappeared where it used to be used widely. Copper fluss has taken it's place. All of a sudden I see 'latticino' used inaccurately... (been sending messages to such sellers). Sellers often say Venetian about many beads from Asia.

All I have to say about that is don't get your education by reading Ebay listings... you might become misinformed.

One thing I wonder: do we currently have young collectors? What will happen to get them interested again?

Interest in trade beads surged a second time in the 1980s/90s due in part to the interests of Grateful Dead fans/followers. I saw more trade beads worn by 'Dead heads' than any other people. I'm a 'boomer', but it was this second wave of bead-love in America that caught my interest. I was already familiar with trade beads in the 60s/70s but was not in a position to buy until 1990 when a bead store opened in Claremont, California.



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