Wayne, I hope one day you will publish a beautiful book of larger than life color photos of your glorious bead collection... or fine art prints. I hope you can find a way to share your wonderous collection and inspire other bead collectors of the future.

As for my little collection:

The bottom two strands are wearable necklaces. The others are waiting.

I never intended to collect spotted beads. The two necklaces were won at auction or found fixed price, both for reasonable prices, so how could I pass them up.

Then I found the green beads, and swooning with excitement I purchased them immediately, no matter the cost. The story (stories sell beads) is that they were in a trunk in New England for 80 years or more. Prior to that they were unsold inventory from a closed trading post in Oklahoma... or so the story goes. The glass, the swirl at the bead holes, the double dots... all are consistent with Venetians of old. Yet I have not found a photo of these exact beads in this color, not in the Picard books/website nor the full Sick bead card collection (on CD).

The aqua w/ red dot beads were a dubious purchase. I'm not quite sure if they are Venetian or not. The color is strong... not sure what to do with them.