I sent those before, but still worth a second glance I guess...

In 2015 Martine explained to me how to find this seller. Now a lot of new beads in his store, but still interesting.

Nel

That’s Bel Haj. legend in his own lunch hour. I spent days in his shop, learning at his knee. In 2011 and 2014 his shop looked just the same.

Yes Bel Hadj. It might all look bright and shiny in his store but he is amongst others an ecyclopedia of traditional Maroccan jewelry and above all a very kind man.

Leo Hakola
Tucson 2016

Hudu Moro: One of my favorite bead sellers in Ghana

By the way: I have so many pictures of bead sellers. Maybe I will send some more ...

Nel

A picture of Jemina Bruce Sackey in 2011. She belonged to one of the most famous bead trading families. Born in 1929, she passed away in 2015.
The lived in Teshie House, which was built for her grandmother and completed in 1912. The plastic buckets next to her chair are completely filled with beads and beads. I have to look for a picture of that famous wooden house and will post it later.

Nel

And there is the famous Teshie House! I hope it is still there. When I visited Auntie Jemina the house was in a very bad condition but the whole family lived there!

Nel

I hope noone thinks a concrete house would be the best replacement!!!
Thank you Nel for your pictures, please send some more of Ghana beadseller pictures!!

Only one foot ... and a lot of beads.

Nel

The first one is from Eastern Turkey, selling prayer beads.
The second is at the pearl market in Beijing. This woman was hilarious.

Treichville market, Abidjan 1971
JP

Old press photo from 1920, labeled as "Peter Beader of New York, dealer in beads." Found on Pinterest. Would love to have more info on this fellow and his business.

I definitely want to get down to see them soon. I've bought a lotta beads from them over the years! :^D

Took a couple of days to locate this image! As Fred pointed out at the time, this image of 3 beautiful faces is a prime example of the cultural diversity of the Tucson shows. And, they are all bead dealers!

Abdul Latif

A favorite is Alaji Juwara who shows up in my driveway and spreads out the contents of his van, but it has been so long ago.

Here I'm admiring Billy's photo album of bead dealers. Many have come to see his collection in his home.

Collectors also collect wonderful lifetime friends and experiences while on the trail of the elusive bead.

Mr Kazemi is my favorite bead seller.always with hot tea and old beads.
his shop is in Shiraz.

Does anyone recognize the third person in the photo of Becky and Kamol?

I'm late to the feast, as usual. This is a wonderful archive. I love all these images, and the latest one from Ali sums so many of them up. Mr Kazemi's shop feels like a home I'd like to live in.

Loong Nguhn is my favourite dealer for just about everything. Loong means Uncle and Nguhn, his nickname (everyone in Thailand has a nickname which becomes semi-official), means silver, or in popular speech, money. Perhaps he's the most respected authority on Thai ceramics, and pieces that he has sold are in just about every important private collection and many museums internationally.

The most important thing for any collector is to have a dealer whom you can trust, and I trust Loong Nguhn completely (well, 99%, just to be on the safe side). Like so many younger Thai collectors I've learned enormously from his generous advice. He has a wide network of contacts all over the north of Thailand and in particular in the Burmese border areas, on both sides of the border. His expertise is in ceramics, but beads are often found in burials along with pots or in them, and so he can tell you where they were found and with what artefacts they may have been associated. Many of the Southeast Asian beads I own came in fact from him.

He doesn't have an expensive storefront in River City or the Oriental Gallery, just a cubicle at Chatuchak Market where he goes once a week to meet his friends and customers. He knows who is going to buy everything he obtains as soon as he gets it. But the real place to go is his home in Si Satchanalai, which was the centre of the Thai ceramic industry in the fifteenth century. It's a sprawling place, full of his families, and packed with unexpected treasures. I once found him sleeping with his head on a very valuable Ming dynasty bowl.

We try to go there for a few days every year. The photo was taken in June. There are no beads in the picture unfortunately... Oh yes, there are - a half-hidden bracelet on his right wrist of Samon Valley, 1st millennium BCE, carnelian, rock crystal and green chalcedony beads. When we were leaving he took it off and gave it to me through the car window - that's the kind of man he is.

The other person in the photo is Phoen, my companion of twenty years.

All the best,

Will

The Oregon Bead Man. I camped next to Al at rendezvous for fifteen plus years. His emporium was a wonder to all. Chevrons, old agates, Dzi, Czech, the whole gamut of African trade beads, Inuit carvings, quillwork, seed beads..... Too much to list. You had to have been there. And Al was such a treat. He had stories from the dawn of time it seemed. He loved to dance around the campfire at night. He went out to rendezvous into his early eighties. His son John brought him to his last primitive when Al was 86. He once told me his recipe for moonshine from the 30's It's since been misplaced. All I remember is it used 100 lbs of sugar. After he passed John and I melted some white glass with Al's ashes and put him in some green chevrons, his favorite bead. His whole family down to great grandkids ended up with Al beads and not a few of them went out into the wider world. As John put it, Al worked the bead game from the outside for forty years, now he's working it from the inside.

And it brings to mind that an Al Lind bead was included in our dear Russ Nobbs healing necklace, in 2013. Have been waiting for the moment to include Russ here, and this is it. I still miss him, especially when thinking about Tucson! It was my chance to pick his brain, and witness his genius, kindness and wit in person. This is a post from Floor, who included Russ in her book about the Tucson shows...

We have, and have had, great people in our community. It feels good to remember them.

Jim did lots of rendezvous, Friendship, some bead shows and flea markets. He set up at Friendship for years. I understand He's in semi retirement in Michigan now

King Bully, over 25 years at Friendship, and many many bead shows.this man always has a smile and his beads are the best

Sorry no pics of these guys. Maybe someone else has one or another

It would make a great book. "Wild Bead Sellers"? LOL