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.

Frantz Art Glass
http://frantzartglass.com

As Sonny and Cher sang so many years ago
The Bead Goes On

Cody, I feel your questions and observations are beautiful and well thought out. I would like to hear more from you and others who seem to be lurking in the dark.

Meanwhile, I feel you are one of the enlightened few who is basking in sunshine. You know much and your participation on BCN would be highly valued, I feel.

I'd like to address your main question and probably have more questions than remarks -

You ask "Has the golden age of bead collecting passed"? My first question is - are you referring to just the US, and are you thinking about the cost and availability of glass beads, or interest in the history of glass beads? Or all of the above?

Demographics is certainly playing a part. There are a lot of Baby Boomers, so right now the boomers are over-represented in the bead collector world, and the boomers are an aging group, with arguably more disposable income that the smaller generations coming after us. So as the Boomers and their collections have matured, yes, I see a decline in purchases in this age group (since the collections have grown large with time), but not a decline in their INTEREST in beads. So if the Golden Age of Beads means lots of cheap antique and older beads, yes it seems that the golden age has passed. Prices are softer than a few years ago but still high enough to be a barrier to new collectors of modest means.

New collectors also have the hurdle of learning how to tell certain beads from their more modern copies. But, I think it's always been the case that bead collecting requires a lot of study. New information surfaces continuously and is more available than ever before with the internet. I have been able to access German journals from the late 19th century, for example - something that would have required a trip to Germany 25 years ago. New work on the history of beads is mostly available on the internet, too. There of course are gaps in what can be accessed online, but that's true of any scientific or technical discipline. I still make trips to libraries and request book loans.

As sellers have moved online it would make sense that fewer "important" beads are to be found in the venues familiar to the collectors of yore - flea markets, yard sales, antique shops, bead shows, etc. From my perspective, the internet has ushered in a Golden Age of bead collecting!

My perspective is that of a late-comer - I've only been collecting old glass beads for 8 years now. To me, the global bead collector community is vibrant. Also, there are museums with notable bead collections in Europe so I'm not too concerned that the ones in the US, which were fairly recent developments, have closed. Private holdings such as the Picards' are still extant. I have heard of one other long-time collector that may be opening a private museum for his collection.

So the "bead" goes on!

It seems to me that a lot of what is changing in the world of bead collecting, is changing in the world of collecting as well. A friend of mine used to collect a specific book that would be available only once a year, in an annual edition. It brought him great joy to chase the ones he did not have yet. I once asked him which ones were still missing, and within 10 minutes I ordered one of them online from a specialized dealer. When I gave it to him, he asked me where I got it. I told him: 'You don't want to know'. His joy of collecting was the hunt, and I did not want to take that away.

The online marketplace for collectibles may have taken away some of the magic of collecting. For some people, this makes a big difference. For others, not so much.

I would love to see more knowledge being shared on beads and bead research. I try to do my part, for example by trying to get more information on bead history to current lampwork artists, and doing research. Others are doing the same.

However, I agree that so many of the collectors who have been at this so much longer, have a wealth of knowledge. It would be great if more of this knowledge could be written down, shared, captured.

I do not think the golden age of bead collecting has passed, but I do think it has changed, and it is very much 'in flux'. Preparing for the Borneo Bead Conference later this year, seeing the speakers, reading the old journals, made me see so many bead researchers that I had never heard of, mostly from Asia. Perhaps in the US and in Europe, bead collecting is not at it's peak right now, but interesting things appear to be happening in other places. Or maybe it always has been, but it has only now appeared on my radar.

Very specifically: my interesting in collectible beads made me want to make my own glass beads. Now, I try to connect the two. Birdi, you stated that Moretti glass was no longer being made. From what I understood, Effetre is the current producer of the Moretti glass rods. Same glass, new name. The other Italian glass rod producer is Vetrofond. There's also beautiful lampwork rods being made in Lauscha, Neugablonz and Jablonec.

So please consider contributing your expertise to the chronicle of beads!

China is a problem.

Their production of beads now attracts buyers from around the globe.
Repros of such things as old Venetian, ancient Chinese glass, Dzi beads is one thing, but the immense variety of beads now pouring out is just staggering. It pretty much makes it impossible for any artisan bead maker to actually earn a living making studio beads. even with the internet providing wider venues such as eBay and Etsy? What about TaoBao?

And since Xi Jinping's crackdown on The Great Firewall, correspondence with anyone in China seems to have become far more difficult than it was a few years ago - and may actually endanger Chinese correspondents in ways we know not.

Accessing Chinese websites and using Google Translate is also not without hazards, from spam emails and tracking cookies if nothing else. Anyone here using a VPN? Ad blocker?

So we can buy beads from the Chinese, but we cannot discuss much with them anymore?

Hanging something on your person says something.
As does not hanging something.

Signifiers.

Who are you trying to impress? And what are you trying to tell them?

And I also miss many of those who have moved on, perhaps selling off their collections or just losing interest. My interest has never waned, probably never will, but yes, I am wondering what to do with my excess...flea markets are no longer attracting "bead people" because the internet has become such an effective marketplace. We do a couple of flea markets a year. I have for over 30 years, matter of fact. And I notice most people who show up don't even have the attention span to look at items as small as beads. Those people are at home shopping on line now....

Bead societies across the country are generally becoming seed beading groups, bead bazaars are shrinking or folding...but the big world markets are still doing well. For us in the U.S., it's Tucson. That has become an informal global bead society....

I think I've passed on enough bead knowledge to our son to make sense of my pile whenever my body should decide it's had enough...he knows the important material, where it is and what it's worth, and that the only place to go with it is Tucson...

Museums? I'm not very optimistic about how they will handle bead collections...and am almost more in favor of bead collections being auctioned or sold to private collector individuals who will wear them, use them, re-sell them to collectors who appreciate them...rather than have them sit unappreciated in a museum store room, or sold out the back door...

And, despite our archaic software, BCN continues and will as long as possible. It is impossible to transfer it to any other forum software. It remains a wealth of information for anyone with the curiosity to search, either using the site search engine or Google. And Google images can take you to much BCN info as well. This week David is doing a full site backup. The first and smallest directory is in it's second day of backup. After it's all done, our current hard drive will be fried, and then David will replace it with the new one in the wings. This is an example of how your help in the fundraisers literally helps the site to stay on line!

David keeps backup on it's own SSD with it's own operating system.

Here's what I suggest - divide and conquer. If you have a favorite bead topic, or BCN forum member, conduct searches, copy everything into a Word file, then edit it. Create your own mini archive on your topic. The people volunteering to do this can agree on a format, like Blurb, and then start publishing the BCN Archive series.

But, it may be more practical to do as Chris suggests and have this project be only electronic. However that involves Joyce and David using more of their time & energy & money to host the separate archives somehow.

To do any one topic will be a "labor of love" and will require a large commitment of time, I'm afraid...Fred, I think you should do the "ojime" archive!

Lots of good options using Google.
Paula.

Here's one page of an example searching pumtek on BCN.