Hi Floor,

If you go to this link you can find some interesting information, and if you search for "introducing" you´ll find more.

Hendrik

More history,

Hendrik

I just got hooked as a youth growing up in Southern California. My mother was quite an active bead collector during the late 1960s through the 1970s, and my interests were no doubt influenced by her excitement when opening large crates arriving from West Africa. Strands were everywhere throughout the house. I visited the Bower's Museum, Santa Ana, California, on a regular basis, where there was a small, revolving bead collection. I have fond memories of many of the avid collectors during the years that followed: Elizabeth Harris, Vesta Ward, Jamey Allen, Robert Liu, the Picards, Joyce Holloway, Carl Dreibelbis, Steve Messick, Elizabeth Bennett, Charles Delaplain, Leonard Kaplan (Laguna Beach, CA), Silva Neilands, Jan Skipper, David Arthur, and especially Jackie Little, a fantastic lady with a true Southern charm. I served a couple of years as the treasurer of the Orange County Bead Society, where I met many more folks. My bead interests are widespread, but focus mainly around early Venetian and the Islamic-period. I have never made a piece of jewelry in my life; and in fact, I own none. I just love my strands of beads for what they are, and I wish that each could speak, for there would be an interesting story told. Sometimes, bead collecting can be overwhelming, and I have to put it down for awhile. In 1999, I relocated with Boeing to northern Alabama (with its Chernobyl-like summers with sweltering humidity and one tornado warning after another), where I currently reside; and I am active in Boston Terrier Rescue (www.bhambtr.org), as their love is unconditional and unyielding.

I've been a bead fan almost forever. My mom and I "discovered" a Native American (Pomo, N. California) lady at a county fair selling her lovely tiny woven baskets with beads in about 1968....and she also had little daisy chain bracelets for sale, which my mom bought for me...the Pomo lady also showed my mom how to do the daisy chains...we bought seed beads and with dental floss we were making daisy chains - I was 8. Besides the cool strand of old Czech beads my sis gave me for Christmas when I was 6 (wish I'd never taken it apart!), that would be my initiation to beads. Then I stumbled upon "African trade beads" at age 14 when I scored my first millefiori bead for 2.00, which was pretty pricey for 1974!

I grew up in rural N. California. It was 1982 by the time I made it to San Francisco, where I really wanted to be since seeing the Haight Ashbury on the news in the 1960s! Better late than never! The first bead store I ever was in was The Bead Store on Castro. It would have been about 3 years since Jamey stopped working there. Around the corner, Gems and Jewels also had African trade strands of "copal" (actually phenolics) and some Venetian millefiori beads...Margo at The Bead Store let me use her pliers and cutters to quickly assemble a pair of earrings for myself, and that was the beginning....

In 1983 I discovered the Northern Ca. Bead Society and attended Jamey's talk on amber...I think I still have my notes somewhere!

In 1983 I became the first employee of General Bead SF, now an institution. Actually I was the second employee but even the owners prefer not to remember the first one who could only deal with Steven for 2 weeks. Steven is......an unusual guy, but I collect those sorts of people and of course we became lifelong friends.

I left GB in 1991.......had to join the straight job market...yet still sold my bead jewelry at the Haight St. Fair from about 1984 - 1995. Colin was born in 1997...Child care cost more than half of what my job paid at the time, so I stayed home with him while he was a baby....Poof! It was 1999 and David insisted it was time we bought a computer. I thought....Yech! They are so ugly and take up so much space! What the hell do we need a computer for anyway?! THEN.......I discovered eBay and that there were beads there and I didn't feel so isolated anymore as a stay at home mom!

It was fall of 1999 that we connected with African dealers at the Ashby flea market in Berkeley. I had taken David there a number of times looking for African dealers who I had seen there through the 80s....finally we connected with M. Kabba and the Tourays! Then commenced what became 6 years of selling trade beads on eBay.

It was during those early years, about 2000, that Esther G. sent me an email link to a discussion about one of my auctions on the old National Bead Society forum. On it, shortimer as asking if the eja (antique squashed Venetian wafer beads) were real. That's how we learned about that forum!

David created beadcollector.net in 2002. We began to get steady use Sept. 2003 when the old NBS forum went down and it's owner seemed unwilling or uninterested in increasing server/file capacity to accomodate the increased interest/use and the many images...

Anyway, here I am at Bob and Alyson's house on my birthday 2 years ago. Wearing my hot pink beadcollector.net hat, bcn posting page on Bob's computer...and Hendrik, look what I'm holding! Bob's site is on our links page, Art Yeti....he is a highly respected collector/dealer of genuine Tibetan/Himilayan artifacts (NOT modern repros from Nepal) whose killer ancient agates can be seen in Collectible Beads by Robert Liu. Who sometimes posts here as Harry Primate!

I have sold at numerous N. Ca Bead Society shows and a few of the other shows in Oakland, CA over the years. I still put the occasional offering on our trades page here on BCN. For 2 years now I have helped Bassem (Ancient Beads and Artifacts) with his local and Los Angeles shows as well as the G and LW Rodeway Inn (now Quality Inn) shows in Tucson. High hopes to see everyone there again in 2009!

Back in 1973 was when I first started collecting "Trade Beads" as they were called even then. Mostly old Venetian beads but my interests were broad. I started making and selling jewelry at the same time and still make jewelry today.

At one point in my collecting career I had about a half a million beads but have since divested substantially.

My collection was primarily from African Traders and American Traders of antique Venetian beads from the African trade. I have also collected beads throughout Europe and the orient.

I've had the idea of a necklace like that in polymer kicking around in my brain for a few years, but now that I've seen yours, I'm humbled. :^)

Gaw-geous!

Hi Luann,

When you make this necklace I would love to see it. Sounds like a very cool idea.

Carl

They were inspired by a photo prehistoric fox teeth I found in a book about prehistoric art.

The hardest part is getting a graceful curve without distorting the rest of the bead. :^)

After reading your initial message I pulled out the polymer and started working. Will show you what the outcome is......

Hi Luann,

After reading your message I got out the polymer clay last night (first time in YEARS!) and made this little assemblage.

Carl

Hey, I've found my calling in life--floggin others to greater heights in their artistic endeavors! :^D

Seriously, Carl, that is an amazing necklace.

For my ol' bead buddy Margot "Bubbles" Thompson.

Taken as a humorous view of an over zealous bead collector. Circa 2005.

a 50 something whose real name is Juel. From a very young age I was raiding my Granny's jewelry box and begging for the outdated faceted glass necklaces(& I still have them). When I was about 10 there was an archeological dig on an island near our house on Lake Gaston in VA. The dig boss was a friend of my parents and kept his boat at our house so I got to go play there. One day they let me and another kid do our own dig. When I showed them what I'd found there was much oohing and aahing and grabbing to put it in damp sand. Turns out it was a bead made from the jaw bone of a fox so I was hooked on a more ethnic view of beads, too. (That and National Geographic) I didn't get to keep that bead, though. Then on to seed beads and daisy chains and buying whatever I saw at the thrift stores. Somewhere along the way I started making most of my own jewelery. Eventually I opened a bead shop and learned to do lampwork(from Emilio Santini). DH changed jobs, I closed the shop and kept what didn't sell. I am more of an accumulator than a serious collector. I enjoy this forum because the broad range of bead topics and the eye candy. I am also a serious native plant gardener and am in training to be a companion animal behavior therapist using the Tellington Method. Oh, and I'm a radical turtle wrangler.
Juel

Suzi and I started collecting beads in 1977, we were at a mall that had a bead store that was going out of business we found a box with a mixture of beads and bought the box. In it were a variety of beads, most old, as with most newbies, the beads that got our attention were the millifori, we both picked out a favorite and made what would be the first bead either one of us wore. Since this time we have both devoted a good portion of our lives to beads and bead related products.

From our web site www.lopacki.com

Back in 1977 as both myself and my girlfriend (Wife to Be) Suzi were trying to figure out exactly what we wanted to do with our lives we had some answers and just needed to put some direction to our plan. We both knew that we had to get out of Southern California, and knew in our hearts that their had to be a richer more serene life out there somewhere. We left in the summer of 1978.

To satisfy her creativity, Suzi's choice early on was and has continued to be Bead Work. Her first ever project was a beaded bottle in "Peyote Stitch", Suzi was so excited about her new love she took it with her when we went to visit my parents. Being somewhat nervous because she did not know them that well at the time, she pulled up a chair and started work on her Peyote Stitch on the bottle, nerves won out when for whatever reason her bowl with the beads falls from her lap and scatters all over the kitchen. I don't think that bottle ever got finished and Suzi has talked about her embarrassment more than a few times over the years.

Suzi tried #12 beads on some early work and then discovered #14. If you have no idea regarding size a #12 bead measures 22 to the inch a #14 26 to the inch. I just measured some of Suzi's beads, the average diameter for the #14 1.5 mm to 1.6mm.

Her early pieces were all designed with color pencils and very small graph paper, many a time I'd watch her erase one color so she could try another. In the mid nineties while on a trip to Canada we were at a computer store and discovered some software written for people that did needle work ............... Praise God .......... creativity with no eraser, since this time being able to play with her designs on a computer has marked an incredible blooming of her desire to produce works of art in loomed beadwork.

As you would expect the quest for the not nearly as common #14 seed beads was always on our minds and when we spied out beads anywhere we saw beads, we'd go look. We settled in the Zuni Mountains south of Gallup, NM in 1980. This provided an unexpected blessing, Gallup is pretty much a little island surrounded by Native American land, welllllllll......... Native Americans love beads as much as we beaders do.

Over the years Suzi has acquired an unbelievable pallet of colors to use in her art. I remember the time I went into one of the jewelry supply stores in town, I walked toward the back of the store past a discount bin, in the bin there were a few small zip-loc bags full of what look like #14 beads. In fact the person I was doing my business with affirmed they were #14 that they were discontinuing as they were a slow seller, being the wheeler dealer that I've always been I just had to ask .......... Got any more? .....He said yes .......... How many? ......... 11 kilos ......... I'll take them all. This was once in a life time, there have been many times Suzi has found one or two hanks of very rare unusual color beads never to see the color again, if we had the money we always bought.

In the images below the first image Suzi was not sure she wanted to make it, my nephew and myself talked her in to it, glad we did. It measures 8 X 8 3/8 inches and has a bead count of 29,028

The second image is one of my personal favorites it mesaures 14" X 13 1/2" Total bead count 30,000

A few more images I forgot Suzi on the first the bead work in this image measures 13 3/4" X 7 1/4" Total bead count 15,504

First image measures 9 3/4" X 4 1/2"
Total bead count 14,560

Second image measures 16" X 6"
Total bead count 33,333

It's nice to both see pictures, and read a bit about how the bead virus works.

Bit more on me......
I am having my 33rd birthday this week, and having a girl's only party: beads and chocolate.

The first beads that really caught my eye were a strand of red whitehearts that was given to me by an Ethiopian woman in Lalibela. I lost them, which I strongly regret. It took me about five years before I got really interested in beads. (and bought some more whitehearts)

Two pictures:
The first one shows me being excited (not my most flattering look) while opening boxes from my first shipment of beads from China.
The second shows the result of one of the other things I do: sculpting.

I just quit my well paying consulting job for a little less paying job working as a lobbyist for the interests of handicapped and chronically ill children. Even with a recession, guess you still have to follow your heart.

My partner and I have been together for 9 years, but not living together. He is working in New York as a photographer for six months. I will see him for the first time in more than 4 months in Tucson. (and taking him home with me afterwards) He has no interest in beads. So if you see a couple looking like they really missed each other, and one just pretending to care about the beads, that's us!

Suzi and I started collecting beads in 1977, we were at a mall that had a bead store that was going out of business we found a box with a mixture of beads and bought the box. In it were a variety of beads, most old, as with most, the beads that got our attention were the millifori, we both picked out our favorite and made what would be the first bead either one of us wore. Since this time we have both devoted a good portion of our lives to beads and bead related products.

I think that the best way to find out some regarding my background is to go to my website and click the link Daniels artwork, or if this link is active just click it. http://lopacki.com/art/
unfortunately I have never had the proper time to put up two very important aspects regarding my career as a Lapidary artist. I do not have my bead page done but at least it’s started, the other page that is lacking is the high end high karat gold artwork I was doing when I got side tracked with a diamond tooling company.

Depending on who you talk to I am known to wear many different hats, right now in my life most of the time I’m doing what it takes to keep a diamond tooling company and website running a smoothly as possible.

Prior to this life I started as a stone mosaic artist, this was what most spread my name in 1980 through 1987 or so, in 1987 I had the opportunity to get involved a turquoise venture in China and being somewhat bored with my artwork at the time I got involved, little did I know that I’d spend nine months in the next two years running all over the PRC, I am sure I’ve seen more of rural China than 99.5% of the people that live there. China was very eye opening and broadened my horizons.

I got back to serious art work in 1990 and managed to produce some pretty amazing things over the next years, in about 1998 I was getting pretty tired of playing the “gallery game” and Suzi and I started the diamond tool company, the old saying goes “be careful of what you ask for”, the diamond tool company turned into a monster and consumes the better part of our lives. We are in the process of slowly backing out of what we are doing now so that we both can go back to what we were looking for back in 1977 when we left Southern California. Living a life with little or no stress, doing what we love to do and just enjoy life, out in the country where we live we are already far removed from the crowds.

Regarding myself as a stone bead maker, to complement an inlay pendant, I made my first stone beads in 1979, I even came across an image of this necklace the other day. I have been cutting beads ever since and with my personal touch have made some of the most outrageous material into strands of beads that make many out there know me most or only as a stone bead maker.

I had the privilege of giving two lectures at the Bead Expo 99 in San Antonio, one being on stone bead making the other Opal bead making, I was honored . I was also honored when I received a letter from Art Seymour in 1998 regarding WBG World Bead Makers Guild informing me that I had been chosen as the first Guild Master in stone, the other Guild Masters are Jamey Allen in Polymer Clay, Art Seymour in Furnace Glass and James Smircich Lamp work glass.

Once I’m at the bench again I assure you all that when I get a project done, you will be some of the first to see what just came out ......... My respects to you all .......... Danny

Image below ........... I’m the one with the purse ........ I call it a bag ........ Suzi made the beadwork and leather bag ....... The handsome guy on the right is my buddy Marvin Ellis.

Oh my goodness... I've lost 65 pounds (not due to illness, thankfully) since that photo of me in the green sweater that's posted in the original thread! And my hair is dark now... okay, gotta get my girls to take a "now" photo and get it posted here.

I live in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, work full time, married 32 years to a great guy who loves carpentry, electronics, computers, and our two daughters. Kate is 22, an art major who just graduated, and Emily is about to turn 19, danced with Orlando Ballet for a year and is now in culinary school. We also have two dogs (a crazy border collie and a newly adopted Shepherd mix who is blind - I am her guide person!)

I collect imperfect millies and create necklaces for myself and friends and co-workers; used to sell them, but I saturated my audience at work, so there's no more demand there. Oh well. I don't own a digital camera, nor an iPod, and I don't even know how to work our new TV/DVD, which is downstairs in the basement and I only visit to watch an occasional movie with the family. I make twice weekly trips to the library, borrowing anything I can reserve. I wish I could get inspired to make jewelry again.

So, I don't post any gorgeous beads, but I love viewing them, and I cherish this board, Joyce and David, and those who visit and post their beautiful findings and artistry.

My name is Meredith. I live in the magic city of Miami Florida, and I started collecting trade beads about 10 years ago. During that time I lived in the country of Benin West Africa and was serving in the United States Peace Corps. Upon my return I brought home a few bracelets I bought containing a mix of Djenne clay beads and seed beads. I started surfing the net to find out more and slowly moved toward a strong interest in Venetian Fancy/wound beads. I eventually found this site, and I am so grateful. I have learned so much here.

Meredith

I have no background in beads. Most of my family thinks I'm nuts.

I have a BA in Art History and an MA in Education from the University of Michigan. My art history classes are where I really got hooked on ancient & prehistoric cultures. I wish they'd taken beads more seriously then, it's astonishing how they are so overlooked as cultural artifacts.

It was these classes that inspired me to focus on world and tribal art aesthetics and themes later on.

I'm a fiber artist, then segued into making jewelry with the handmade polymer artifacts I use to embellish my wall hangings. I used to sell my work through about three dozen stores and galleries across the country, but have pulled back the last few years to refocus on retail and internet sales. I'm a double-juried member of the prestigious League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, and I've done the ACC-Baltimore show. My work has been featured in Ornament, Niche and AmericanStyle magazine. Hey, I just found out I'm going to be quoted in an article about yoga in the New York Times on Thursday--am I famous yet?? 8^*

I'm not sure if I buy beads to complement my artwork, or if I make my artwork with beads so I have an excuse to buy more beads.

I got my bead jones when I first started out about 15 years ago, repairing and reselling vintage jewelry. I collected Czech glass beads with a vengeance, eagerly studying Sibylle Jargstorf's books GLASS IN JEWELRY and GLASS BEADS FROM EUROPE.

I began to incorporate these beads into my tribal jewelry designs, and all hell broke loose.

Somewhere along the way, I came across African beads and trade beads, probably as "singles" in local bead shops. They had so much character & appeal, so different than the sparkly & shiny modern glass beads available.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit I first collected those darn black-and-white batiked cow bone beads. I thought they were beautiful--still do, actually. I'm pretty indiscriminate in my taste--I was crazy about cheapo Indian glass beads for a long time, and still use them in some of my designs. If they have the right "look"--handmade (yet well-made), rough, worn, etc.--they call to me.

Bought my first strand of robin's egg blue bicone beads through Barry Kahn at Caravan Beads in Portland ME. (I've always called them "vaseline beads" til I found this really only refers to the yellow variety...) At the time, Barry was the ONLY person I knew who even knew what these odd beads were, and he was very nice to me when I first started collecting. Later came Russ Nobbs of Rings & Things & his staff, who obligingly contribute regularly to my bead buying habit.

Now I go to the regional shows and look for African traders first off.

I have no idea how I found this forum, but I've learned so much here over the years. I have very little to add to most of the conversations, I'm still such a novice--I love the history and such, but very little of it sticks to my artistic right-brain.

I consider myself a "bottom-feeder" in the trade bead collecting world, as I tend to collect the lower-echelon beads: Old padres, the smaller, less expensive faceted "Russian Blues", striped pony beads, Venetian pony beads, pigeon eggs (red, yellow, white)etc. I'm always looking for the little sliced Czech "flower heishi" (Prosser beads??)and the little Czech "snake vertebrate" beads. I LOVE kankamba beads, especially the watery blues and greens. I bought several strands of Hebrons early on (especially the blue & green) until the prices shot up. I have quite a few strands of millifiore (though rarely the red/white/blue ones everyone else likes so much), and I've recently gotten hooked on spotted "skunk" beads, especially the red ones.

I make some of the beads I use in my designs, but I love to really mix it up with "real" beads.

I also have quite a stash of freshwater pearls in an unnervingly broad range of colors but especially teal/aqua, rust and olive/pale greens, and a HUGE stash of semi-precious stone beads in water colors--aqua, pale green, crystal, like amazonite, varscite, hemimorphite, fluorite, rock crystal, etc.

Oh, gosh, I sound like a babbling idiot. Let's just say if it looks old, well-worn, is pale turquoise or green or coral-colored and not too expensive, I buy it! :^)

I've posted a few pics of examples of my jewelry. I make a lot of other animals besides horses, but they're still my favorite totem.

What else? I write a regular column for a crafts magazine called The Crafts Report. I'm married, have two kids (one still at home), I study martial arts (though I have to give it up now, as I've had my third and final knee injury from practicing). I volunteer as a foster parent for mama cats & kittens for our local Human Society, and some of the "fosters" never left. :^) I also have an opinionated rabbit who has the run of my studio, and four feral cockatiels who alternate between thinking I am the goddess of good food and Godzilla, but they have a good home with me and they make me laugh.

I guess I'm too lazy (or busy...,yeah, that's it...) to post something unique, so here's a PDF of my Vitae.

Jamey

Seriously, your creds are super. But I'm curious--What was it that first got you involved with beads & jewelry? Did it all begin in the 70's, and how did that come about?

Hi Luann,

In 1967 when I was 16, my motives for getting involved with beads were very simple. I was a hippy kid who wanted something unique/not-mass-produced to wear. I decided to make it myself. I went through various phases. I painted metal, did papier maché, and eventually tried to do conventional ("Indian") beadwork (which, by the way, I did totally backwards..., but from which I learned a lot). By 1968 I made necklaces for several of my friends in school, and had sold my first commission. Once I found a bead store, I was surprised to see how many kinds of beads there were. A friend of mine gave me an ear stud with a piece of Venetian millefiori on it, and explained why the pattern went through and could be seen on both sides. In 1970 I moved to San Francisco, and lived near The Bead Store, where I ventured almost every day for years. I worked there in 1972. In 1971 the Arizonal Highways article by Cloyd Sorensen came out, and introduced me to American Indian trade beads. By then I already understood that beads encapsulated wonderful history, and I had begun to absorb it. I moved from making beadwork exclusively to incorporating other beads into my work. I became attracted to chevron beads in particular (!). By 1974 The Bead Society (Los Angeles) was formed, and The Bead Journal began distribution. I decided to write for The Bead Journal about amber, since it was a hot topic about which I knew something. But I pursued research for almost two years before I wrote a 3-part article in 1975, published in 1976. I met Si and Ann Frazier, who owned a store in Berkeley (where I had been a few times), and found we had amber in-common (and much else). They were very informed and enthusiastic. We developed an Amber Group that used to meet every few months for a while. In 1977, with them, I was on the Founding Committee for the Northern California Bead Society.

Jamey

Hi Floor-
I am also a fairly new and occasional visitor to this forum, and wish I had more time for both the forum and anything else related to beads! I live in the San Francisco Bay area. I started beading about 10 years ago when I could not find the perfect garnet necklace for a dress-up event. I went to a gem & jewelry show with a friend, looking for jewelry, but left with three $2 strands of garnet beads, and my stringing habit was off & running. I am mainly interested in designing jewelry from beads. However after meeting Joyce at our local bead society meeting, and getting introduced to more of the collectible-type beads, I became interested in antique and ancient beads that I could make into jewelry as well. The picture is of me wearing a necklace that I made from the first "collectible" strand that I purchased from Joyce's friend Ebrahim Touray. These are antique (possibly ancient?) agate beads from the Middle East mixed with a smattering of Mediterranean coral. I enjoy wearing beads that have been around for hundreds of years or longer - they are a beautiful part of our artistic heritage.

My latest passion is melon beads, in glass, faience, stone, etc. My "dream bead" would be a lapis lazuli melon bead from the Bronze Age period. Any other melon bead addicts out there?

Hello,
I like your taste. I like middle eastern beads too, and lapis. I have a strand of new lapis melons, that I bought from a Kabul jeweler.

But have not seen any old melons here. Sorry.

Hi Rosanna,
It's a pleasure to see you!
Rosanna is one of the few people from our Northern California Bead Society who both have an understanding and appreciation for collectible/antique beads and who read or use this forum. The others would be Jamey, Bassem, Bob, myself and Jarret.....are you there? Anybody else lurking?

Joyce is too kind - I know practically nothing but hope to learn more. I am still mostly interested in stone beads but am beginning to understand the fascination of glass beads, in which one can see various bead-making techniques (hopefully) which help date & locate the beads. I have been studying a few old (maybe ancient) glass beads that I purchased recently and if I can get off my butt and learn how to take better pictures, I'll be back with some posts and pics.

Hi Rosanna, a pleasure to meet you!
Strangely enough... I have an ancient lapis melon that came on a strand I bought from Monsoon Intl a few years back.
I'll try to post a pic for you tonight.
Jeff

Jeff, That would be great. Today is my birthday and seeing a real ancient lapis melon bead would make my day! I have not researched the melon design very much, but it seems to be one of the most ancient, recurring bead motifs. I'm thinking it's just a very aesthetically pleasing design, not necessarily an attempt to copy a naturally occurring fruit or veggie, but I'd like your opinion. And lapis lazuli seems to be the premier ancient bead material from the Bronze age. You have a wonderful piece from the beginning of human civilization!
Rosanna

Hi Rosanna, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
I love the old carved stones! Especially when the bead is so small it'd be tough to hold onto while shaping!
I've got a few melon shaped carnelians (much newer) but never really considered the "why" behind the shapes!
Was it a votive offering? funerary? or just "something different" to make a sale??
To quote a favorite old commercial... The world may never know!!
Best, Jeff

The article below says "lotus-bud"?

Must be another article?

I am so happy that this discussion thread started, since it prompted me to check out the opium poppy pod, and lo and behold, I seem to have in my collection "melon beads" that really do look like they are modeled on poppy pods, right down to the pale blue-turquoise color (see photo). This pendant I assembled recently has a large glass bead about 18 mm, and the seller said it was "from the Middle East". The small bead is faience and advertised as Egyptian, 500 BC or so, but I'm not sure anything from that area can be placed plus or minus 500 years unless we know where it was dug up.
There are so many variations on fluted, grooved beads that it would be hard to guess the individual bead artist's exact inspiration. However, after seeing the pic of the opium poppy pod it was a little eerie that I happen to be particularly drawn to blue colored beads of this design. Maybe I'm channeling some ancient hashish -head?
Thanks for the comments & birthday pic!

Perhaps Jamey is correct. Your photo is pretty convincing.

Some very interesting bio's and outrageous beads posted lately!

Yankee's lapis melon bead is just awesome!

I don't have anything as early or juicy as that but here are some carnelian melons (or opium pods?) collected in Tibet that I have posted before.

Mine look a lot like yours, Bob. I was recently advised that mine are new, though they were purchased as old. What do you think? Thnx Paula

Hi Paula
I hope you are well and every thing is good.
Your cornelian beads and Bob's ones are indian, recently made and to be more precise they are coming from Gujerat area, i have all diferent types of them. When i will have time i will make photos of them and i will post them.
All the best
Yankee

Greetings Yankee,

I collected these beads in Tibet, from traders a bead at a time over twenty years where they were said to be from Chamdo. What I believe are parts of Sichuan & Qinghai today. These were never plentiful around Lhasa and have become very scarce now. I am not saying they are ancient - I don't know how old they are but they were not made recently. I think you are confusing these with the mountains of newly made commercial melon beads. Then again, I am willing to listen why.......

Regarding Paula's beads. Beautiful! But yes, I expect you are right and they are reproduction beads.

I love the beads you have posted!

Best of Luck (and beads)......

greatings Bob
when i said recently, i ment last 10 to 50 years, :) , i am attaching some photos of the same beads and i will go into details for you.
The main distribuitor for the factory in Gujerat is a shop named Amrapali, located on M.I. road in Jaipur, Rajastan. Amrapali is one of the richest family in the area, and they deal in mostly etnic indian silver, gold, agate, cornelian, etc...
The reason i tell you that because i know for sure, i been in the factory, as you can imaging what is an indian factory, it's a family bussines.
Where still are using old metods to cut polish and manufacture beads, as they did for the last milenius... that's why they look "autentic".
How they arrive to Tibet? My wife have been dealing with many tibetians for the 8 years she left in Himalayas, and there is a large comunity of tibetans who exchange merchendise mostly from the Rotan Pass(5000 mt higth) and the Spity valley, to Tibet, and vicervers. And they came to Rajastan, Jaipur to get there staff. Mostly the merchendaise is carry by indians to New Delhi where the tibetans has a large comunity and bring it to there home.
All the best
Yankee
PS. please look at the black staff which is into the holes and lines of the beads, is the same as yours.

Hello Yankee,

I can see I will never convince you they are different beads so I will not try.

You have had much experience. How can I defend myself???

Mercy............

& Good Luck!

Dear Bob, you are too modest, it was just my opinion for what ever it is worth.
Please mail me privetly your home address and i will send you one o each, and you will juge.
My email address is beads2000bc@yahoo.com
All the best
Yankee

Dear Yankee,

I am a bit surprised you cannot see the differences between these bead groups. I do not doubt that the recent Indian beads copy the much older pema raka beads, with considerable intention, but not the greatest fidelity (!).

The material of all beads of or related to the pema raka group is very different from Indian agate. This material is (generally) more opaque and of a distinctive burnt orange color. Some beads look like jasper (though they are not). In the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese also carved this material into high-status articles of considerable merit—of which I have documented several specimens.

I suspect this odd carnelian comes from Chinese Turkestan (Kashgaria), or some place accessible to both China and the Greater Persian Empire

Presently, new pema raka beads seem to be made from the same material, though now tending to be slightly more translucent, but still distinct from Indian carnelian, and from artificially-made Chinese carnelian (sourced from Brazil).

Jamey.

I read with interest your comments about opaqueness and translucency, but still can't tell the difference. Some of mine come from the Carlssons, some from antique/flea markets and the ones I posted yesterday are from Pema. I do believe that Pema's Tibetan beads come from India, as Yankee explained.
Actually, it really doesn't make much difference to me how old these beads are or whether the carnelians are artificially aged. I love these date shaped beauties. I'd just like to know how you can confidently identify them without handling them, and how I can be more aware in the future. TIA Paula

Hi Paula,

Are you saying that with Pema's fake beads and the Carlsson authentic beads right in front of you, you cannot see a difference?

In my eyes, the differences are so distinct, I do not believe I could mistake one for the other.

On the other hand, about fifteen years ago (+ or -), the Chinese began to make reproductions of the standard "potato-shaped" or "baroque" beads, USING agate that must come from the same source as the original beads (that I believe are also Chinese beads). The material is the same color tone—tending toward burnt orange—but now tending toward a more translucent diaphaneity, with more obvious layering or convolutions. These beads are more authentic-looking than either Indian beads or the more recent Chinese beads based on colored Brazilian agate. However, the drilling is very different, and tells the tale.

I have posted all this several times in the past, here and elsewhere. I'd repost the helpful photo of my old and new beads..., but since I'm in S CA working from my laptop, that photo is not at hand. But I'll try to post it early next week when I return home. (I'll also take a look at the gallery archives here, in case it's findable.)

Jamey

Dear Bob and Jamey
I was rush to jump into conclusions, and i did not paid enough attention to your photo. I am sorry for it.
Thanks Jamey for your sharp eye site and expirience. I learn my lesson.
Still Bob if you send me your address i will send you one of each.
Sincerily
Yankee

Dear Yankee -

You are too kind.

But please don't worry, I've done it too.

No please keep your beads. I have too many now!

(Unless of course your blue Lapis melon is included in your offer) ???

Otherwise turn on a budding bead collector with it. ;-}

Many happy returns // bob

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ps: Sorry Jamey - I asked first!

July 2023

A few years ago it was determined that the carnelian used for making pema raka beads was sourced in Yunnan, and is still being exploited. Whether the beads were made there or not is not determined. (Yunnan is a province of CHINA.)

By the way, counter to presumptuous suggestions that I advise people to refer to pema raka as "Han beads"--I never remotely said anything of the sort. I remarked (on more than one occasion) that in an exposition I read decades ago, there was an association between Tibetan carnelian beads and "Han." My suggestion was that this might indicate that pema raka beads came from China, OR were brought to Tibet by Chinese traders. Nowhere have I nor would I suggest a "name change." Being misinterpreted by thoughtless people, and having to correct untrue propositions (about me and my research) are very annoying wastes of my time. But I feel compelled to correct these misstatements of my ideas and observations.

Finally, most people know the name (and spelled presentation) of "pema raka" because of my work in this arena, that stems from about 1985. (Also mentioned by me in multiple expositions.) I have zero desire to change the name.

She used to use those poppy pods in flower arrangements. They ARE a beautiful color!

According to Professor Google:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August Gustav Eisen
http://darwin.lib.cam.ac.uk/perl/nav?pclass=name&pkey=Eisen%2C%20A.%20G.

Eisen apparently was a man with many interests, including Mayan
culture, beads, textiles, and zoology.

Origin of word "Eisenia"

According to Webster's Unabridged dictionary, the word derives from
Gustav A. Eisen [there are assorted variations on this name], an
American zoologist and archeologist. Eisenia itself refers to "a
widely distributed genus of small earthworms."

Was the Antin Gate near the area of Beijing where you live, RM?

Here's another photo from this book:
http://snipurl.com/9agje [dsr_nii_ac_jp]

From the Digital Silk Road project [see link], which I had no idea existed until you posted your photograph! Their Digital Maps of Old Beijing are fascinating! Thank you!

http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/beijing-maps/

you right! beadsite!
I think the photo shows some place near Antin gate.

Well I live in the south of Beijing city but my wife's family is just in the neicheng (inside the wall of old Beijing )

happy new year to you all!

R.M.

sorry, RM, I didn't see your message until just now.

I searched Google for "Antin Gate", and near the top of the results list was

Album of Photographic View of China, Vol. 1

and then I recognized your photo as being part of this album.

Further clicking around revealed the Digital Silk Road Project.

Several pictures in this album were obviously taken after a war of some sort, and reminded me of the pictures Matthew Brady took of Civil War battlegrounds in the United States at about the same time. Bodies lying everywhere. It made me feel sad.

Here's the Wikipedia account, with one of those dreadful pictures.

Hi Stef,

A photo is a good idea. I'll have to think about what to post for myself (if any). I know your bio pretty well, but it's always fun to read about it too. I look forward to your posts.

Happy New Year. Jamey

WHO?
I was researching beads and their history long before the subject became popular, I have an amazing collection of rare, historic and extraordinary examples.
My collection is assembled of purchases from antique markets in UK and generally the examples cost little because the vendors are not interested in beads. This also means the collection includes all sorts of beads, all materials, and from everywhere. All fascinating to me!
My first beautiful beads were kept in a cake tin and came from my grandmother, mostly early C20th Venetians and some chinese.
In the mid 1960s I was an art student doing fine art and jewellery/enamelling, part of the student ferment of the time.

For those nostalgics who measure time by the music: The Animals, The Kinks, Pretty Things, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Barron Knights, The Who, Dusty Springfield, Ian Dury, Booker T. and the MGs... Allen Ginsberg, Adrian Mitchell, were part of the scene, and played live at our college gigs, etc.

Very early in the '70s, I corresponded and met with Robert Liu, the Picards, Peter Francis, Gloria Dale, Elisabeth Harris, Angela Fisher, and Mary Seyd, to name but a few, and attended and contributed to most of the early Bead Conferences in USA.

I have been teaching threading and knotting to a professional standard for well over 30 years.
Ran a famous bead shop in Portobello Road for nearly 20 years.
Originally self taught, I started sharing threading techniques in 1976.
Over the years, the methods of threading that I teach have evolved to include both traditional methods and the newest stringing materials .
I have taught many prominent jewellery designers and their teams.
I also do Bead Identification, Roadshow-style.
BOOKS etc:
The first popular book on beads in 1988 was written by me,(and reprinted every year for 10 years!) which brought the Bead Society of Great Britain into being.
Subsequently wrote 2 more books on Beads, both about beads themselves and with how-to techniques and projects:
"Beads! (make your own unique Jewellery)" 1988,
"Bead Jewellery Workstation" 1993,
"The Bead Jewellery Book", 1997.
There are plans to republish.

I often contribute articles to academic and popular journals and magazines and have participated in TV programmes in UK.

My collection is featured briefly in the final instalment of the "World on a string" TV film series by Diana Friedberg, which also shows my son Tom Heatherwick's huge unique bead sculpture "Bleigiessen".

CLASSES:
I am very interested in how people learn skills, and try to teach by verbal instruction, understanding principles, and practical demonstration.
Rather than doing a "Project" in a class, I prefer to instruct students in alternative ways of solving threading problems which they can learn, then adapt for the designs they want to do.
Generally in my basic one-day class I teach different threading techniques, graduated by order of difficulty, from "Charity Bazaar" standard up to "Bond Street"! This helps even a beginner to get accustomed to using the tools.
The "Advanced" class is for much more specialised and professional requirements which may include methods for beads with unusually large or awkward holes, fancy knots, cords and handmade braids.

MEMBERSHIPS:
Founder, Bead Society of Great Britain,1989 (Nearly !,000 members)
Trustee, Bead Study Trust,
"The Bead Database", online bead information resource
"Beads-L" international email bead discussion group.
Society of Jewellery Historians, etc.

CONSULTANCY:
I am available to do Bead Identification Roadshow-style sessions, and can advise about repairs and reconstruction of treasured bead items.

ONGOING:
I participate in specialist International conferences on beads among archaeologists, costume historians, conservation experts, etc. and have an extremely extensive collection of rare beads ancient and modern from all over the world, which I am currently preparing for museum exhibition, and trying to find time to write another book!

Family:
I now live in Camden Town, London.
My 38-yr-old son Thomas is a well-known designer of everything from handbags and furniture to public buildings and bridges. He has twins just 2 yrs old, Moss and Vera. My daughter Miriam is 36, "multi-qualified" but at the moment enjoys just being a mum to Sol who is 21 months. My 96-yr-old mum is really very ill, so I'm spending a lot of time with her right now. All of them live nearby. The grandchildren are, of course, all adorable.
We'll be together this evening for new year because my balcony has an excellent view of all the firework displays!

OK all? Enough?
Stefany

Thanks that's great.
Which do you feel would be more popular if updated, corrected and re-published? (Under consideration this year)
Stefany

My name is Hendrik and I'm 57. I'm Flemish and I live in Belgium, close to the German and Dutch border. I became interested in beads through african art and the trade beads. I started a little shop in a local nearby town because I wanted to be surrounded by this stuff as much as possible, still continuing my dayly job as a construction worker. In that shop I sold mainly african art and slowly moved over to ethnic jewelry and beads from all the sources I could find. One day I sold a Pende Mask to an American working for Nike in Belgium. She became my wife a few years later and that same mask is hanging on my livingroom wall now.
All these years I tried to find information about the items I sold and collected and so I went to a bead identification workshop in London given by Peter Francis, shortly before he died. Last year to the Bead Conference in Istanbul and lots of books in between.
I collect whatever interesting material I can find, but almost always at a bargain. So I spent lots of time on fleamarkets, less then I would like to do since I became self emploid a couple of years ago. Once back home I look for all the available information. The beauty of the beads, their history and meaning, meeting and discussing with the people involved in beads make it a passion that's gonna last for long I hope.
Hendrik

The picture is me waiting for customers at a Paris market and they did show up!

Dear friends:

My name is Wayne. I am a real estate agent recently and just a new horn bead collector. About 18 years ago, my mother paid a lot for purchasing a 2 eyes Dzi bead to me as an amulet for passing university entrance examination. That was my first ˇ§lucky beadˇ¨.

Usually, we Chinese prefer natural material to artifactitious composition. As the result, variety jade pedants were used to be my favorite. Not until my mother got sick 3 years ago and I earnestly sought some superstitious powers for curing her, then I noticed the ˇ§beadsˇ¨. Please do not relate Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin to me, I am a bachelor of law, and regard myself as a logical and scientific guy

Although I still could not keep my lovely mother alive, but during those happy time, especial a new bead necklace arriving, we could discriminate and analyze beads together. I think it can disperse the ill from her somehow and indeed leave some sweet memory to me and my family members.

I still purchase beads now, and I will never avoid my 2 little girls touching my collections. (Of course under my serious watch) Recently, my goal is collecting ancient Paiwan and Borneo trade beads. I wish I can solve the mystery about their original product location in the future. Wishing you a sparkling and bright and happy New Year! May the season bring much pleasure to you.

Sincerely
Wayne

It is me

Wish you long life and happy, healthy every day.

Isn't it amazing that while we may often sit oceans apart, we all seem to find the same joy in beads?

Beautifully put, Meredith. Wayne, how lovely that beads brought such enjoyment & closeness during your mom's last months.

actually called Annemarie. I am from Austria and going onto 62.
I have come across my first beads while on posting in the Ivory Coast in the mid 70s. But I was more facinated at the time by the gold weights and African Art. With a four year interim in Persia I returned to Africa (Zaire - today Congo) and then Senegal and really got into collecting beads.
Now - as my husband has retired from his duties in the Foreign Office we are back in Austria since 10 years.
While staying in dakar I started already assembling beads to some sort of jewellery. i have perfected that since.
I do not collect anymore as our daughter is not at all interested in this sort of thing.
I have started doing jewellery on a more professional way and sell it. i use my own teasures and - unfortunately - have to buy more !

i came across this Forum two or three years aago - Joyce will know exactly - and have been an avid reader all the time but have left the front for a while.

My latest creation and last one for this ending year (about an hour ago) is enclosed. Dark green Baltic amber, bronze, and an old (?) Bushmen ivory button . I remember there was one shown here once quite some time ago and called a special name but memory is fading with age!

As it is the last day in this year I would like to wish you all a very happy new one.
Anne

Thanks for the reminder of the name, Carl! Anna, Hendrik and Moonwitch show some great images in past posts too.

A happy new year to everyone here, and elsewhere too. Here in Canada, the lake in front of my house is frozen white under a bright blue sky, and when I’ve finished writing this I’m going to walk across it, a mile or so to my friend’s house. Hopefully, my footprints will be the first, before the snowmobilers get started.

Will and Stuart are actually my middle names. I grew up in Britain and escaped as soon as I could. I worked as a university professor for many years in Hong Kong and China, and later moved to Canada where I’m lucky enough to have some great students, both undergraduate and doctoral, to work with and learn from.

I’ve written a couple of novels and a dozen or so plays that have been published and performed in North America, Europe and Asia and won a few literary awards. Right now I’m working on a series of compositions for poetry and music with a jazz group in Toronto. I don’t know why those guys put up with me, but it’s a lot of fun.

I got into studying Chinese ceramics when I was in Hong Kong, then focused on bronze and lacquer as well. Soon, I diversified into other Asian cultures and I’ve done quite a lot of work as a curatorial adviser to various museums and institutional collections. My present academic research is on the trade and exchange of artefacts and ideas between early Southeast Asian cultures – which is how I’ve come belatedly to beads, and to this forum.

I really enjoy the discussions here; there’s hardly a day when I don’t use the search engine to learn new things. I keep on saying that I’m not a collector and I’ve tried to limit myself to things Asian, but I’m completely blown away by, for instance, the kiffas and akosos that Thomas S and Carl have shown here, so who knows where I’ll end up next.

My great passion is traveling. Since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to see things for myself, and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to travel for several months each year. I like traveling rough and on my own; that way I see more. I’ve spent some time in most Asian countries, but there’s always more to see. What excites me most is to waken up before dawn in a new village wondering what the day is going to bring me.

Here are an old picture and a new one. The old one was taken long ago on a trip from Pahalgam in Kashmir through mountain passes to some of the wonderful monasteries in Ladakh. The fixed smile on my face is actually a grimace of pain because my horse had slipped and thrown me the day before (so much for the joy of travel!). The recent one is taken at Phimai, the superb Khmer temple in Northeastern Thailand, which is near to where I live for part of each year. It’s one of my favourite places in the world and I’ll be back there in just over a month.

What excites me most is to waken up before dawn in a new village wondering what the day is going to bring me.

Okay, since Will was brave enough to come out of hiding, I will as well. I have been absent from the Forum quite a bit lately, partly for personal reasons, but mainly because I have been trying to get my collection photographed and up on my pokey website.

A hopefully brief background:

Born Jan Leslie Skipper, September 1950 (often kidded about that name as I was growing up, but it is a family name, and not as bad as "Sue"). I greatly desired to be an Artist or Architect when I grew up. Instead I got called up for the draft in 1968, avoided it until 1970, then enlisted. After military service, became interested in making jewelry, mainly silversmithing, but often with beads as an accessory.

The jewelry & bead stuff continued, but mainly as a side hobby to a real money making enterprise, which included a career and ownership in an Engineering & Surveying business from 1981 to 1999. Later, also on the side, we developed an independent Film Company (Stone Circle Studios), from 1991 to 1997, that did not make any money at all, but was a barrel of fun. My wife (Janne), and I managed stunt teams and stage shows across the southeast, and produced two Sci-Fi/Fantasy films (with me starring unfortunately in one of them). As if that was not enough, all through the later 1990's, the bead & artifact collecting continued to flourish. I discovered the Tucson show in 1997 and that was the beginning of a great love affair with ancient beads. My collection became more massive than I could ever keep track of.

In late 1997, I had my first heart attack, and of course not being content with just one, I had a couple more in 1999, including the last one that killed me. Not being particularly fond of being dead, I decided to return. So thanks to the help of my friends, family and some amazing doctors, I was brought back to life, though not without significant damage to the old nervous and muscular system, including loss of the use of my legs and feet. My dear wife brought my favorite beads (including my Earth-Sky door d"Zi bead), to my bedside during the long recovery.

In time, I was able to start collecting beads again through the internet, and eventually able to get about in a wheelchair, which I still use at home, although I have been able to walk some without the chair for a few years now. I have been selling pretty steadily on Ebay since about 2001, but mainly so I can continue to collect. It is through the internet, the Bead Forum, and people like those of you reading this message, that I was able to start my life over again.

These days, I am trying to get my entire collection up on the website, a daunting task, because the collection consist of many thousands of ancient beads as well as several thousands of Venetian and other beads, artifacts and jewelry items. I have decided to eventually sell almost everything except the most favorite of my eye beads and other favorite pieces, because it just has become too much to manage.

The website is partially up now, and anyone that wants to take a peek is welcome to. It is not complete and I am sure is full of mistakes and missing quite a bit of information, but I have been selling from it for some time already. In fact I am having trouble keeping up with it partly for that reason.

I have attached a picture of me in my shop recently, and a link to the website if anyone cares to look at it and or offer advice. One of my biggest problems was trying to decide how to organize the categories, without swamping the actual catalogs with too many objects to look at. Also, my technical level is very much in line with an elementary school student, although some of them could probably teach me a few things.

I would like to thank everyone (including dear Mr. Allen), for being a part of my return to well-being and say how much I enjoy being a part of this grand organization of human beings.

Happy New Year to all,

Jan Skipper
mosquitobay

I was ready to go to bed, and just had a quick look at your website.
Wow....
Words fail me, such amazing beautiful beads.

I like the way the website is arranged, it allowed me to get to the beads I find most interesting quickly. But browsing all categories for a while now left me inspired and impressed.

And now I really should get some sleep....

BTW: Jan is the most common names for men in the Netherlands. At least you are not named after something everybody steps on...

Kind regards,
Floor

Belatedly, I just got a chance to check out the website, Jan. What a treasure trove it is! And the design of the site works very well, too. I can imagine how daunting it must have been to start on it, and what a pleasure it must be to have it up and running. Congratulations!

Will

Most of my life has been in the Greater Midwest US Snow Belt, but the flatlands have made the mountains of roots-places such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia fill my heart.

Had a first life as hippy, but not before regularly participating in country auctions with wannabe-antiquer parents. I bought many lots of oddments including beads. At first I found these mainly Czech/Bohemian beads of the 1920s era captivating, needing the sparkle because around this time my mother painted the inside of the house battleship gray and my dad painted the outside dark forest green.

Second life was printing and offset photography, a delightful taste of making items of use with one's own hands, though I did learn my way around the family workshop and had an early victory in making my own crystal radio. Kids, this was before transistors!

Printing went with a love of books, and to this day my home overfloweth with them. In the graphic and rhythmic sense it also went with love of Bach, mathematics and pre-1850 geometric-design textiles (and their weavers and methods, handwork again). Advising and publications in this field and one or two others have been fun-work.

The most long-term life as supervisor in a wastewater treatment facility, utilizing knowledge of math, chemistry and biology - not to mention attempts to understand human nature. Teaching use and care of the gigantic pumps (some more than 4 stories high including discharge piping) of multiple types and other equipment, safety training and getting the job done for the citizenry have been very rewarding.

In between all this were siblings earnestly trying to make a living (younger brother has already lost 2 jobs to NAFTA), marriage and death of spouse, reading and study of some historical and archaeological stuff, and a strong lean toward understanding ancient technologies. Oh, and beads, products of same.

We are learning that the glassmakers of around 1300 BCE knew about the effects of specific components of true glass, about temperature and atmosphere control, and were very able to adapt to new knowledge and materials.

The thought that we are only in the last 70 years (especially the past 30) figuring out "how did they do that?" puts a grin on my face.

Best wishes for a happy New Year,
Snap

Hello, I'm Art Seymour. I fell in love with glass at the age of five on being hypnotized by my grandmothers blue glass prism. It's been a total love affair since. I dug and collected antique bottles in the late 50's and began working in stained glass in 1969 after leaving the military. I became hooked on beads in the late 60's when I got my first Venetian milli bead. I've been making beads of one kind or another since 1971, first horn and ivory and bone then glass since 1977 when I began blowing glass. It's been terminal ever since, all glass all the time with beads being my primary output since about 1986 when I began making chevron beads which have been an obsession for me. The chevrons have brought me great joy, many great friends, and taken me on many travels. I am now taking a year or so off from chevron making to reevaluate my directions, do some reading and to focus on some other creative projects. Happy New Year to all, and thanks for all your support.
Art

Art, if your search for focus & direction leads you to my area, you have a place to stay. I hope you will still be a contributor to the forum.
Juel

Hello & Happy New Year to you all. My Name is Rick Rice. I have been a collector of various stuff as long as I can remember. I have collected beads for over 20 years & have accumulated a large collection of trade beads, of which Chevrons are my biggest passion. I have been grinding chevron beads from old & new cane for over 10 years & continue to explore new shapes. I want to thank all of you that have collected & commisioned my grinds through the years. It is always fun to do work for others. I have done historical reinactment for as many years as collecting beads. I do a variety of traditional Native American crafts also, including beadwork. rattles, dance pieces, war clubs & hawks, ect. Let me know if you have any needs in beads, bead grinds or Native pieces.
My other passion besides my family is scooters. I have two Harleys, one of which I tore down & rebuilt last summer. I never get enough time to ride, but...
I want to thank David & Joyce once again for keeping this forum going & thanks to all the members that make it what it is...

I was introduced to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in the early 70's when I was in search of cutting materials for the jewelry I was making at the time. I was doing fabrication using sterling and gold and I had a love for Opal and other bright cabochon gemstones that I would bezel set in my pieces. I had studied gem cutting and found it to be a very satisfying hobby/business venture. As many of you know, making jewelry and making a living don't always go hand in hand, so I served in the US Air Force for 4 years and saved as much money as I could. When I got out I went back to work on a business I helped start some year’s earlier, selling firewood! With my savings and income from selling firewood I set up a mini studio to pursue my creative cravings and found I could make a decent living selling both firewood and illustrations (mainly cartoons). A bad accident in the late 80's cost me the use of my right arm and hand and ended my first major attempt at selling my art! I was in several galleries as well as the Scottsdale Niemann Marcus store. I was making high end cufflinks at the time and had customers such as Steve Forbes and Fritz Scholder to name a couple. During the late 70's I started to collect any beads I thought were unusual, I found some cylinder seal beads in an archeologists room at the Tucson that made me want to find out more about rare and collectible beads, this gave me my start in serious bead collecting. In the early 80's a friend, knowing I collect beads, found a Kiffa bead and gave it to me as a present, the rest is history!!! I have since searched everywhere for info regarding these most wonderful creations. I attended the first-ever show of Contemporary American Glass Beads at the Bead Museum in Prescott, AZ I believe around 1993, where I am sure I ran into Jamey and possibly others, this was the first show where I found out you could use cool beads as money, still!!! I met Art selling beads at a now closed mall (Los Arcos) in Scottsdale, AZ. At one of the local bead society’s bead social (remember that one Art?) early to mid 80’s??? I bought Abdul and Ebrima’s first Kiffa beads in the USA, one at the Quartzite show and the other in Tucson or maybe both at Quartzite??? It has been my great pleasure and privilege to have met and dealt with so many wonderful people in the Bead world… I stumbled across BCN a number of years ago and I have been hooked here since! Several surgeries later, including one that completely replaced the upper right arm bone with Titanium and I again 60% good as new, I have a new studio but not much time to use it for what it is for...who knows what the future will bring, all I know is I am a bead addict!!!!!

My passions include Kiffa beads, Bodoms and Akosos, Chevrons(all drawn star beads), Ancients and anything really cool and unusual like Coral, Amazonite, Amber and stone beads!!!

PS if you see me in Tucson I usually wear the necklace with the gold beads and chevrons, the gold beads I made in about 1995

Floor, thanks for the suggestion. I really can't find words to express just how......NEAT it is to get to know all of you bead people just a little. Bead diplomacy is what our world governments need to use! I am humbled and touched and so happy that you all are part of this site.

This thread is getting pretty large...and soon it will drop to p. 2....but I hope that others will continue it.....this group is just a small segment. I will post a link to the big thread once it drops along with the continuation.

Hi,
A little late, but thought I would join the parade!
My name is Sarah, I am, I guess a nomad at heart.

I was given a bag of Victorian jet funeral jewellery as a 7 year old craft mad child, which My mum let me cut up to make other things with.......'Ouch'! That was my first bead moment! ( I do still have some 1920's beaded pieces from the same bag.)
I was a circus performer for 15 years, and then taught for a while. I then travelled to Morocco by chance and fell in love with the country,it's people and cultures. I have been returning frequently since, and gathering beads and jewellery. Most of these I sell online. I also am a trustee of a sustainable community in the south of England.
I have learnt so much from joining this forum, and enjoy the posts whenever I get the time!

Hello, I am a newby to this site. I am Sandy Lindsay, currently on my second deployment to Afghanistan, but going home later this month. I got into making bead jewelry with my best friend and her daughter, then found out about "old" beads last time in Afghanistan.

When I bought an "old" strand of beads here this time, the word spread to the other vendors, and now I can't go to the bazaar without vendors bringing out a few special beads just for me to look at. Needless to say, they were irrisistable and now I have a small collection of Afghan beads. Very little idea if I picked "good" ones, just that I picked what I like.

Hoping to learn a little more, and have someone to talk to about beads. As a nurse I work with many local Afghans, and learning about their beads is teaching me their history.

"Nafrayu" is from Stargate SG-1, the quote "The very young do not always do as they are told".

the beads sold in these markets can be bought in Tucson for $12-$20 per strand. Much of the items have been newly made or reworked and made to look old, much is from China and Indonesia, just have an open mind when listening to their stories and please be a skeptic. Be safe and hurry home! Thomas

..is lots of fun, actually. A genial way to establish rapport, and avoids the pitfalls of seeking actual antiquities (with all the assorted baggage of grave robbing, site looting, museum theft, getting seriously ripped off). Asking a seller what he/she finds interesting about a piece can often produce some surprising, entertaining, and/or informative replies.

Thanks for posting your pictures, those of us who don't get out of town much love seeing what's available in the markets!

Thanks, I am having lots of fun at the Bazaar, actually. Mostly bargaining for good prices on scarves, boxes and modern Afghan style beads and jewelry. I have been afraid to pay too much for what looks like "old" beads because whether or not they are old, I have no idea what they are worth.

I take these beads and my other inexpensive semi-precious stone beads to my kids classes and let them make art project grown-up bead necklaces for Mother's day-I help put on clasps.

Last year I brought two stone seals (I picked up on my first deployment) to school when they learned about how Jesus's tomb was "sealed" in the Bible. They used the stone beads and playdough to make their own "seals". I thought, and am now unsure, if the seals are really a couple thousand years old. The kids think it is cool, but I want to be sure and know and tell the truth. I will probably love the beads just as much if they are reproductions. I appreciate the help on this website.

Hello there, I was interested to read about you.
My oldest son has just returned safely from Afghanistan where he was on duty with IFAS. He's a junior officer in the parachute regiment, and was at Kandahar. He described to me the merchants bringing strands of beads to sell at the bazaar, but told me they all looked 'old' so he didn't get any. He bought me some rubies, though, very roughly cut but pretty, price not too bad. I told him the merchants had been doing business with travellers for thousands of years in that area - they are professionals!
Take care, and keep safe.

My name is Mark Puzon, almost a year old (turning 40 - life begins at 40, they say). I work for an NGO working against the involvement of children in armed conflicts.

I am from the Philippines. I've been collecting beads for the past 12 years. I collect mainly trade/heirloom beads from the Cordillera Region, although I am also collecting beads from other areas in my country. I am partial to brass/bronze/copper/silver/tin bracelets too. I also collect traditional handwoven textiles.

Swami Veet Nishedha, 66 yo., from Barcelona, Spain. Bachelor. Amateur.

I try not to collect beads by making necklaces (could be I am unwillingly collecting necklaces).
Drawing is an option too, for the relief of an eventually stressed emotional center.
Below: myself wearing one necklace, and a thumb-sized drawing of a face.

Hello!

I have just read through the entries and it has been a pleasure and delight to learn more about you all - I was moved at such intimacy, and you all seem to be such lovely people. It must be the beads.

I am British, married to a Japanese, dividing time between Norwich, UK; Manila, Philippines; and Sanda, Japan. We have three children in early twenties. The oldest is in the British parachute regiment, just returned from Afghanistan, the others still studying. My husband is an international lawyer and university professor.

I trained as a teacher in Northeren Ireland, and my first job was in Kayseri, Turkey, where I became fascinated by the Hittite seals that were being uncovered in a mound near the city. There were some interesting beads too, and a shop sold them in the bazaar, but first of all I thought they might have been 'nicked' from the archeological site, and then I had no money in those days in any case, so I didn't buy any, but remember them with regret to this day. I liked looking at and feeling the beads and imagining where they had come from.

I moved to Kuwait, but gave up teaching to become an air stewardess with Kuwait Airways - better pay and free travel all over the world. I did some sideline business importing garments from New York, Mumbai and Bangkok into Kuwait, and later I had another shop selling art works. I started buying jewellery, and semi-precious stones, and would add the odd bead from the shops I was visiting in Asia. They were ideal to slip into my handbag. I liked the look and feel of them, but knew nothing about them. At the end of my flying days I had a collection of stone beads.

Then on a holiday in Manila I met my husband and I returned to teaching - I had my own pre-school here for some years - and brought up our children. After they left I began looking at the old stone beads I had collected years before and I started playing around with them, and decided to start stringing them - and that was it. Hooked.

Manila is a good place for stone beads and glass from China. We have all sorts of pearls and corals here too. Stringing them and teaching workshops is now my part-time work/hobby. They sell old glass beads here too, but after some early mistakes I am rather sceptical about their provenance.

I admire the gold work of pre-colonial Philippines, and there are working goldsmiths here who will copy designs, so whenever I make a little profit from the stones, I will commission some gold work, perhaps four matching beads, and so slowly accumulate enough beads for a pre-Hispanic style Filipino necklace. It's an endless loop, really

I discovered BCN shortly after I discovered the internet, and I learn a lot from here. Mainly 'caveat emptor'. The stories I have heard about beads from vendors in Asian bazaars would fill a book with entertaining fantasy. I am in awe of some of the artists and experts who post here - many thanks for your generous contributions.

I have lost the software interface from my digital camera (actually, I left it in England) but one of these days will upload some pictures. Thanks to all of you for sharing, and of course to our wonderful hosts, David and Joyce.

PS - Mark and I (Pilipinasbeads) have already exchanged emails and plan to meet as soon as I recover from the holidays.

PPS - I have a forum, and anyone is welcome to visit:

You can probably download your camera's software from the camera manufacturers website--it's amazing how freeing that bit of technology was for me--I no longer worry about loosing software(as I undoubtedly will)-though it drives my husband nuts.
Juel

Hello Floor and All;

My name is Thomas Mercer, I am sixty years old retired. A member of the Osage Tribe in Oklahoma
and live in Poughkeepsie New York. I attended the “Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe New Mexico back in the early 1970’s there I studied silversmith and lapidary. My interest are fishing…astronomy…rock collecting…bead collecting and Egyptology.

I have been around beads of all kinds my entire life. I still have the first Venetian millefiori bead given to me back in the 1950’s. I am a bead collector only and do not sell or trade beads. I collect all kinds of beads and bead like things. If I like it is in my collection. If it is not in my collection it is because I cannot find it or I cannot afford it. The largest portion of my collection is Venetian millefiori/mosaic beads. About four years ago Joyce twisted my arm until I joined the BCN. I have been happy and unhappy I did. I have had the privilege to meet several of the forum members and enjoyed the meetings. They are all very interesting nice people.

My posting name DOGBONECRAZY, is a childhood nick name for the early 1950’s.

Here is a photograph of me at the local Oktoberfest back in September of 2008.

Have a laugh

Sincerely
Thomas Mercer
Dog Bone Crazy

Chris Prussing here. You can Google my name and discover more about me than I probably want anyone to know. I used to run a bead shop, now retired. Have written a book, Beading with Right Angle Weave, and many articles for beading magazines. Oh yeah - and I'm a Graduate Gemologist from the GIA [that explains the interest in chemical reactions, microscopic and spectroscopic analyses, etc.]

Things I've written online include The Beader Survey, I See By Your Beads, and the infamous R U A Copycat Poll:

http://www.flash.net/~mjtafoya/extras/chrisbea.htm

http://www.flash.net/~mjtafoya/extras/chris.htm

http://beadwork.about.com/library/weekly/blruacopycat.htm

Some of my current little projects can be viewed here:
www.chrisprussing.etsy.com

I have a collection of trade beads that I'm sorry I ever bought and can hardly wait to get rid of.

Hi here I’m, Greta, a Belgian woman.
I hesitated a long time and finally decided to show a part of me. In 3 weeks I’ll have 64 candles on my birthday-cake, but I don’t feel that number of candles.
Have been collecting my whole live. Already when I only was 6 I putted away antique books, beads, stamps, laces, curtain-ribbon with wooden beads, beaded handbags etc. It was forbidden by my mother to keep rubbish , in her eyes that old stuff was to throw away. My father was different, but he died when I was 5.
1970 I accompanied my husband to Congo, we both worked there for 26 years, We staid 5 years, in the region and the period of the Ebola epidemic, in the real bush, no shop, no telephone, no TV, nothing !
We survived the two pillages 1991 AND 1993 in Kinshasa.
In Kinshasa I had a string with a bell and some beads, a Frenchman was teasing me all the time to get it, but when I buy things I like, I never sell them. Until that time I didn’t know anything about beads, I had masks with beads but didn’t pay attention at the beads properly. It’s only years later that I realised why he wanted my string with beads, he was collecting beads. He never said it.
1996 we moved to Benin, we were guided by a French colleague , and he introduced me in the bead world and Benin was the paradise for finding beads.
2002 we stayed 3 further years in the Rep. of Central Africa, where I didn’t find one single bead. We also had war there. When we staid in the bush, we were only 400 km away from Bangui and I had problems to accept that in Bangui was everything, it was an European Town, with hotels, restaurants etc. Meanwhile we didn’t even have TV of telephone.
When I arrived in 2002 in Bangui it was a big disillusionment everything was destroyed, no more hotels, no more shops it was a little bit more than a village.
Later on we made some others short stays in Burkina, Niger …..
Greta

Here I’m with pygmies

You should write a book (if you have not already). So many amazing places and experiences witnessing some of those crazy events.

While I have no personal experience with conflict or something as insane as ebola, I can relate to the lack of telephone,etc.

This is a photo of my house in Benin. You can just see my shower in the right front of the photo. I ran a clothes line from the douche to the tree in the front center. In the back left is a tree nursery I built with local high school students. The all important latrine was a sometimes LONG 100 yards away as was the well. The pump (drinking water) was a mile away. I had to learn to carry water in a bowl on my head the entire distance. It took about two trips every two days to keep my supplies up. I did have lots of space, screens and I was shaded for much of the year by the teak and neem trees. O and I had a cashew plantation in my backyard. However, my only light was my headlamp or oil lantern. I cooked on a gas camp stove and had NO plumbing including a sink nor fridge. And yet, I miss that house. It was cozy. I miss taking bucket showers under the flying bats and a sea of stars. Heck I even miss the 4 hours it took to do laundry by hand. The walking back and forth to the well and the rhythm of the washing allowed me to kind of clear my mind.

I only wish I knew more of beads when i was living there. I am sure I was surrounded by beads, but at the time, I was oblivious.

I have been more of a lurker the last few years but still stop by at least once a week to see what's going on. I became interested in beads because of my love for archaeology. My sickness started with beads in the late 80's. Mostly 'African trade' related and a few ancients.
I am a glass bead maker and off hand glass blower as well - probably because of my initial interest with vintage trade beads.
My studio is called the Canal Fulton Glassworks. I believe it is linked on this site as kubuglass.

Cheers.

My real name is George, I'm 55 and I have lived in Tucson for the last 25 years. I got started on beads just by wandering the frontage road during the gem show. One year I noticed some beads in the African Art Village (before it moved to its present location), I think they were from India and bought a couple strands. The next year I bought a few more and eventually I ended up here where I started relly learning about beads. While I would love to collect Kiffa and other high end items it just isn't in my budget. I usually buy a couple nicer items then go out and about looking for "future collectibles". BTW I recently obtained a group of plastic and shell strands that are supposed to be from post-war Japan and the South Pacific. My mother scored tham at a rummage sale. Anyway I do the vast majority of my collecting during 2 weeks in February post here for a bit preceding and following that time and then fade into the woodwork until the next gem show.

My handle comes from my former project car which was a 58 Plymouth. That got too expensive so I sold it off. I also quit my job at the local branch of the war machine (Raytheon) in 2007 which has cut into my hobbies budget a bit. However I am now much happier with my existance so it was worth it. I am including a picture of me with my most recent hobby which I can assure you is much less expensive than restoring an old car.

For those of you coming to Tucson this year you can expect the traffic to be about the same as last year although they have been expanding the overpasses and I'm not sure how that will affect travel. They usually suspend construction for the Gem show so it shouldn't be too bad. The good news is that they are currently ahead of schedule and (cross your fingers) they may actually be done by 2010!

I was born in genuary 1966,in Jerusalem, under the name of Jacob Shmuel Levy. From some kind of reason my mother allways call me Yankee and that has remain my name. In a very young age, 9 or 10 i guess, i started to collect reptails ( snakes and scorpions ) and at 14 years old i started to milk them for the propose of manufacturing products against the venums, to make long story short, i ended up in the age of 18, with the biggest collection of snakes in the middle east. 16 to 18 as well i fell in love with exotic marine fish and i was one of the first ones, in Israel, to brid them in cautivity. In college i started to lern archeology, and i fell in love with it. But then at the age of 18 i had to join the israelian army, as every one in Israel have to, as you can see and i hope understand. I serve for 6 years in special forces and finish as a capitan, where i got seriously wonded in the Lebanon war and had to pass multiple hard serguries. Then i was offer to work as a military advaiser in the jungles of Colombia, treaning the army there in the Kali distric, Sierra Nevada, i stay there for 2 more years, and then i decided that was enough for me. I went to the caribian islands, Sant Tomas, as a profesional diver for a while. Then i left to work as a diver in the oil industry in the sea of Alaska. I stay there for a year...
Then i started to travel. I been in the five continents and in so many countryes that i can not even remeber.
Finally i ended up in the Netherlands, and i open up a company for extreme sports bussines, but because of the weather, after two years i decided that i needed sun and i moved to the wonderfull sunny Spain, with the same bussines, i stay there for 2 years. And rigth before i left Spain, i meet a wonderfull girl. I didn't know at that time that this girl will be my wife. I left Spain to India where she was allready leaving for the pass 14 years. We lived for a while in the Himalaya, where her first son was born and after 2 years we moved to Jaipur, Rajastan (Thar desert) where still we where there for 2 more years. My pasion to beads started because of her pasion for tibetan beads, and the sky door dzi bead that still she is wearing.
I started to collect ancient beads where ever i could find them in India, only to discovered that my home town, Jerusalem, was one of the best places on earth to find any kind of ancient beads.
Finally after 4 years, we got married and got back to Spain, we have 2 wonderfull kids and we opened a antique reproduction furnitures and high indian artesany (maharaja style) shop.
I speak 8 languages and my wife 5, all diferent ones, except for english.
Happy new year to every body!! I wish all your whises will came true in this 2009.
Yankee
PS. That is the bead that made me fall in love with beads.

I knew we were a varied and well-traveled group of people (except for me, that is), but I had NO IDEA!

You all have such marvelous stories, so many interesting travels and hobbies and businesses. Thank you for the trips around the planet, as I sit in my studio looking out at several feet of snow (with more on the way) at the start of a long, cold winter. :^)

Talking about me doesn't come easy, had to look hard for a presentable photo and chose one from 4 years ago approx.

I'm an English as a foreign language teacher. From the Uk. Brought up in the far north of Scotland. Worked in Spain, Asturias and Galicia. Moved to Italy, near Milan. Met and married Gabri. Moved to Saudi Arabia with the intention of staying a year and left nearly 17 years later with 14 year old daughter, Sara, and piles of old rubbish like beads, silver, textiles and anything else that had caught my eye during travels round the Middle East, East Africa and Asia. Currently living in Stockholm, Sweden.

I have collected Yemeni and Arabian Peninsula silver, coral and agate beads, Venetian beads but I like any crafted or found thing that connects to people from "other" places and times.
Brian

Hello All,

Picture taken 10 mins ago. I have a bad cold & I'am tired. But this picture will have to do.

I was introduced to "Trade Beads" when I went to my first rendezvous 15 years ago.Since then I have learned alot about beads & continue to learn.I was always into all things Native American including, bead work (of course). And this was far before I ever heard of the modern rendezvous.
Started buying beads on ebay & the rendezvous circuts. Then started selling beads on ebay,a few at rondy & love to trade. Since then I have Met many, many nice & intresting people from all over the world. My favorite beads are any round A Speos & Nueva cadiz beads.I collect any antique Venetians,Dutch,Bohemians,German & English made beads.Would love to find a French made bead or two.

My intrests are, the mountains,the woods,fishing,hiking,history,antiques,beads,wood working & any thing Native American related. I also do a little brain tanning now & then & love to ride my Harley.I have the same intrests now that I had when I was young.(45 now)I'am married 17 years, & work for myself.I Live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Thats about all I have to say :>)

Patrick

Hello Stefany,

I was told that the beads on these old lace bobbins were made in England. Some are English made beads & some are Bohemian.

Patrick

even though they're still Czech/Bohemian.

I've never seen those cubish ones before, though.

I recognise all these beads as typical Lace bobbin "Spangle" beads, C19th.
The only Czech ones are the green moulded ones.
The round smudgy-looking decorated beads are not Venetian but we think probably made in England specially for lace bobbins like the cube-shaped beads with impressed waffle textured sides, probably from pressing (marvering) against a file. They are commonly called "Square-cuts" by lacemakers.
Stefany

Hello Luann,

Thank You for Your reply. All of the beads but the greens are English made beads. The greens are Bohemian. The wood bobbins were made by Joseph Haskins around the early to mid 1800s& have pewter inlay.The bobbins are called "Tiger".

Now only if I could get my hands on a few early French made beads !

Patrick

Hey Patrick-
I think you'll find Haskins was a bobbin maker (turning the sticks into nice useful shapes on a small lathe) and its the wood of the bobbins that may have pewter inlays, not the glass "squarecuts".
Did you get these from Carole Morris by any chance when we had one of the big "Bead Expos" a few years ago? She is *The* authority when it comes to lace beads and always explains thoroughly the information that goes with anything she sells.
Stefany

Hi Stefany,

I have no idea why I typed that the beads have pewter inlay, duh !But, thanks for the correction.

I did not get my lace bobbins from Carol.I got them as a gift from my good friend Evelyn a few years ago.

Does Carole have any of the early English made beads categorized or anything ? Any books on the beads at all ?

Thanks, Patrick

Re:Does Carole have any of the early English made beads categorized or anything ? Any books on the beads at all ?

Patrick

Having difficulty emailing you privately through the BCN website!
Hope Joyce can assist
Stefany

Hi Patrick, Luann, Stef et al

I agree, all the beads on Patrick's spangles are English made, except for the two green facetted Bohemian ones which may or may not be 'English cuts' - a name which I have known used to describe a particular 19th/early 20th century shape of facetted Bohemian bead which turn up on bobbins, and on necklaces etc down to the 1920's/1930's.

The square ones are all English 'square cuts' (this is a traditional name - they are not cut, this is a colloquial term). They are wound glass beads usually with impressed file marks on four sides and were made for English lacemakers by English "lapidaries" (some of who were also from bobbin-making families) from the late 18th and throughout the 19th century in the East Midlands counties. They used mainly transparent clear glass, and various shades of ruby glass (which turn up as very light swirled pinks through to deep ruby reds), although small amounts of other colours are found.

I have had some early ones analysed by a scientific colleague at the Ancient Monuments Laboratory (English Heritage) and the basic conclusion was that they were being made from glass which had the same composition as the crystal glass invented in England in the late 17th century and being used in the mid 18th century with great skill in the English West Midlands glass industry (Stourbridge etc.). So makers in the East Midlands counties could well have been using scrap glass from the vessel trade - hence clear and ruby red are dominant in the earlier period and become somewhat "traditional".

Much later in the 19th century, almost when the English handmade lace industry was in decline, square beads which resemble the older English ones (but in general are much larger in size) were made in the Bohemian/German bead industry. I have seen many of these types, especially in transparent clear, opalescent turquoise and transparent amber on later 19th century/early 20th century bobbins

There are two small ruby glass beads which are probably English as well. The two larger decorated 'bottom beads' in Patrick's spangles are what I have always called in my lectures and articles as "English squiggle" beads, and there is evidence to suggest these were probably made, for the most part, by the same people who made the square cuts. They are wound glass beads of various colours with random squiggled trails, often only 8mm diameter, but sometimes up to 12mm and even in oval shapes.

These beads were made mainly in the first half of the 19th century and not made for jewellery, and turn up on many early bobbins. They are poor copies of more elaborate Venetian ones, but at the end of the 18th/early 19th century, the Venetian glass industry had been hit by the Napoleonic Wars.

Curiously, at the beginning of the 20th century when lacemaking in England was in severe decline, many old lacemakers got rid of their old equipment some of which had been in lacemaking families for generations, and although bobbins were often thrown away, the beads were sometimes stripped off and made into necklaces. I have seen quite a few of these over the years with the "English squiggle beads". The 1920's is about the time when you would expect antique dealers to be getting rid of old lace equipment they couldn't sell, and recycling the beads into jewellery which they could sell.

Hope this helps

Carole

Everytime I sit down to write my "who's who" I end up reading instead of writing! What a fabulous group of people you all are! The travels, adventures, languages, philosophies, and beads, makes for better reading than several books I've paid good money for! And thanks most of all to Joyce & David for bringing us all together!
My name is Jeff, I'm 46 and live in Sarasota Florida. I cut my bead teeth at Jan Skippers house sometime in the late 80's. I was buying ancient beads one at a time by 93'. I wear most of my beads, designing necklaces for my lovely wife, myself, three daughters and a few odd friends.
Jan also introduced me to the rendezvous here in the US. A reenactment of the American fur trade era pre 1840's. You can't swing a cat without hitting a bead seller at a rendezvous! Heaven!!
I work for the local county here, and live near one of the finest beaches in the world. 10 miles up the coast is one of Hernando Desoto's landing points, where Spanish trade beads are still found. (I'm not that lucky!)
I collect a myriad of items, hobbies and pets. I'd love to travel the silk road, but fear I'll be too old to make the trip by the time I can afford it. I live vicariously thru the stories my forum family shares. Thank you all!
Isn't it amazing when a small piece of adornment can bring so many people together wanting nothing more than to share a passion!
Heres a pic of me and my grandson last Christmas.
cheers,Jeff

Jeff said "...I'd love to travel the silk road, but fear I'll be too old to make the trip by the time I can afford it...."

In my circle, whenever someone mentions an interesting store or town, somebody else yells, "Road trip!"

I'm thinking it would be AMAZING if once every 2-3 years, our forum could do a group tour to some of these exotic bead places....

Anyone here have the online travel research gene? (You know there's one in every crowd....!!!) :^D

Wow, I did not expect a response like this! I'm glad I asked.......

Travelling the Silk Road was my introduction to collectible beads, and I recommend it to anyone. Ten thousand miles over land through Syria, Eastern Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgistan and China. We travelled with a group, and the oldest fellow travellers were 73 and 71 years old.
Some of my bead buying stories for those 'online travellers' :
In the Turkish Kurdish city of Van I came across an antiques dealer who spoke not a word of English. He saw me looking at beads and pulled out an amazing strand of small blue glass beads. It had a wonderful patina and (can't remember what that's called in English) silvery layer from age. I fell in love. He showed me on a calculator a very high prize. I then knew nothing about ancient bead prices, or about how to know if they were as old as his friend said (2000 years old). I then made a pretty low counter offer on the calculator. He was genuinely offended, took away the calculator, put the beads away and asked me to leave. I have done quite a bit of haggling, but never had this response. So I left.....but I was already hooked. After an hour I went back to have another look. I let them go through my hands and noticed the silvery patina coming off. I did not know if that meant this patina was not original, but I did not their beauty would not last. (I still had 9000 miles to go). I never asked the price again and left. They will always stick in my mind as the first collectible beads that at the time felt like the most beautiful beads on the planet to me. I have no regrets about not buying them, but if I go back, I do hope to be able to find the shop....

Iran was a great place for buying beads. Lots of genuine turquoise from Mashad, great silverwork and quite a few places with antique and ancient beads. In Esfahan in a corner of the Soukh, I was drawn to a small beads and jewelry shop. The owner designed his own jewelry with the beads with a great eye for colours and textures. It was wonderful to find a genuine bead lover in such a far away place. He explained about different stones and glass beads. He kept talking about this Suleymani stone, and I did not have a clue. I left with a small assortment of different beads,like some Islamic folded beads, and received a 'challenge bead'. He gave me a small carnelian bead with two stringing holes, and asked me to email him a picture of what I made with it. And so I did. When I see or wear this necklace it takes me right back to this tiny shop filled to the brim with amazing stuff.

Kashgar, Western China is a centre of commerce in central Asia. The choice of beads was great, but there were many fakes around. For example this little birdy bead that was identified later on this forum as a recent bead. I mostly enjoyed going through the small bowls and boxes with loose beads and mixed junk. Bargaining was essential (as anywhere in China) and the price difference between the first asking price and the final price was much bigger than in any other country I visited. Not having any proper knowledge of knowing the age or origin of the beads, I tried to go with my gut feeling. If I liked the beads I would bargain. However, because I was never sure if they were 2000 or 2 years old, I never bought any really expensive ones.

As soon as I came home I found this forum, and having learnt so much more about beads, I guess I'll have to go back again. Maybe start in beijing, and go back to Damascus!

Hi F

The material of this necklace are from silkroad west china except the red needle one.

R.M.

Lovely knotting, too! Did you do that yourself, or do you have a knot-loving acquaintance? It's a beautiful composition.

WOW! Floor, it sounds like an incredible journey! Perhaps I'll work out a way to make it, though probably not the whole 10,000 miles the first trip!
Keep the stories (and beads) coming!
RM, you've got some great history in those pendants! Thanks for sharing!
Luann, I'm ready for a "road trip"! My wife and I travel far more often now that the kids are grown. We do some kind of US adventure on the even numbered years, and try for a new country on the odd ones!
Works so far.
All the best, Jeff

Hi, I'm Giorgio Teruzzi.I'm 56, live in Concorezzo, a small town near Milan, Italy, and from 1980 I'm working as a paleontologist at the Museum of Natural History of Milan. First time I looked with some interest to beads was in 1983, when I joined to a palethnological mission in western Mali. It was impossible not to notice beads in the markets, as many of you know, both coloured stone beads and colourful glass beads. In the '80s I wasn't a collector, and many of the beads I bought in those years were given as gifts to my friends. Slowly I became a collector, though very ignorant about beads; I began to read intensely about them in 2003, when I was asked to organize an exhibit of my collection in the small town where I live. So I realized I head to learn a lot to classify the material, avoid telltales and tell true and often very interesting histories that beads have. In 2007 I founded, together with some other bead lovers living in Milan metropolitan area, the "Compagnia delle Perle", a small bead society, the first in Italy. I'm a budget collector; my collection, which is obviously not a great one, comprises beads of every material, age and provenance.
My posting name, Napoleone, is the name of my father, which I lost just few weeks before subscribing to BCN.
The picture was taken in 2007, when my wife Silvana and me visited my homonym village of Teruzzi, few old houses on the top of the Appennine Mountains.
Ciao a tutti,
Giorgio

I am french. I am 62. After a long career in the banking industry and the finance consulting I have just retired. I have always been interested in antiques, archeology and the ancient world. I had been a collector of roman coins until 1986 but, regretfully, I had to sold my collection. I began to collect african art in 1987 and beads about 9 years ago. I spent 4 years in Ivory Cost, 6 years in Gabon and 9 years in Mauritania where I still have a residence. I continue to buy beads from Africa from time to time but I now try to specialise in ancient beads from various origins. I regularly increase my collection of ancient beads and display it through my new website, Ancient Beads World, for the purpose of sharing my interest in these beads with other collectors. I try to learn more every day and I am always prepared to discuss ancient beads issues and to improve the representation of my beads.I wish a happy and prosperous new year to you all who are so lucky to be members of this wonderful forum.

Gabriel

Wonderful beads and a good job on the website. I have quite a collection of Roman and Byzantine coins some very nice if you ever want to trade for beads let me know what coins you might have an interest in.

Best regards ....... Danny

So many eyes - you must feel very well protected! It's a beautiful collection and the website is a great resource for all of us. Now, with the internet, individual collectors are doing a much better job than most museums of spreading information about their collections.

Among all these treasures, my personal favourite is FUST 10. There's so much going on in a single bead.

Thanks, Gabriel,

Will

Hi there. Glad to meet all of you. My name is Brooke Monfort. I grew up in Arizona and was influenced quite young by the Native American arts and culture so predominant there. I think I tried beading as a teenager, taking on more and more complex challenges as the years passed. As an adult, I devoted 5-years of my life to pushing bead work from craft to art, creating beaded mandalas later turned into necklaces, which were meditations on various spiritual concepts and teachings acquired. I made 50 pieces in that particular body of beadwork, sold through art galleries and juried indoor art shows. The mandalas were made with antique seed beads, mostly the extinct Victorian microbeads (1 and 1.2 millimeters), having over 100-colors of those wee things back then. I became somewhat well known as a micro beadwork artist at that time, even being stopped in the street by those who recognized me from doing lectures or the many shows where my work appeared. Don't have the vision for those teeniest of beads anymore, but still have a few of the pieces I created from those days. I attached a shot of one, given to a friend, which was never completed as a necklace. He displays it in a shadow-box frame. For perspective, most of the beads used in this piece are the size of the lettering on a nickle! The entire piece is only 3" long and 2 1/2" wide.

Happy to meet you all. Happy beading and collecting!

Hi friends, it is so good to browse through these introductions from years ago! I have been collecting beads since about 1997 - before that I collected netsuke and art glass paperweights with my grandmother. About the time of this thread - 2008 - I took a job at Utah State University and my focus was diverted somewhat as I ran large conferences across the nation until retiring last fall. October 1, 2019 was my independence day and getting back into active bead involvement was the best retirement gift I could have received. Over the years I did go to Tucson bead group meet ups multiple times and was happy to get back there this February (2020) and re-connect with bead friends old (and new).

My background in bead collecting is wrapped up with that of my father, Gary Anderson, and my late husband, Dario Brisighella. My husband was Italian and I am an enrolled member of the Lakota Rosebud Sioux tribe by way of my father, who was in the Air Force. Living in Europe (France and Germany) as a pre-teen, we traveled regularly to Switzerland, Italy, yes Murano, to Idar Oberstein, more. My father did his own lapidary work and I still have opals and other cabochons he ground. So when he branched out into collecting Venetian beads, it was a natural progression. He was the instigator. On one trip to Paris on business, Dario and I found a bunch of blue chevrons at one of the flea markets and we meant to give them to my dad, but we started doing some reading, research, bought the Picard volumes of bead books and we were hooked. About that time, my father bought multiple strands of seven layer blue chevrons from Tunkara via Russ Nobbs and I helped him high-grade them and sell the extras. We ran into Art Seymour at the Fort Bridger Rendezvous and bit by bit all three of us built pretty large personal collections of Art's work. Art became a family friend, visiting us on his road trips - us in Utah and my father in Nebraska. Art contracted with me to sell beads for him on ebay and mostly I used my commissions to buy more of his beads.

Still in love with the delicate millefiori of my grandmother's paperweights from Murano and Perthshire, my favorite beads were the intricate venetian ones from late 1800's to early 1900's. Little works of art, each of them. Chevrons were a new and addictive branch to that ever growing tree of our bead obsession.

Then... a new kind of bead I was not aware of yet - I was at a Salt Lake City antique show when I ran into Richard Stamm who was selling his Indonesian bead collection. I bought a lovely blue pelangi bead for my husband and brought it home. The next day, we drove back and Dario bought the rest of his collection! Of course I could not stop there and bought single beads from various of our dealer friends - then when Bassem Elias was offering three amazing strands of Indonesian jatim and pelangi, we took them off his hands. One strand went to my friend Linda who had also caught the bead bug. Having branched off in that earlier timeline, Linda and I both started collecting Islamic era beads from all the most notable and dear dealer friends (smile).

As our interest grew so did our library and I believe I have just about every book on collectible beads there is. The most important collectible from this bead obsession though has been the collection of friends and acquaintances. Abdul Touray and his family have become friends, visiting us here in Logan Utah often over the years. The Tucson meet ups are a constant reunion of bead friends and opportunity to get closer, develop more personal relationships, and learn from so many so very knowledgeable in this field.

My father and I were quite often at the Glendale Bead Museum and I met Paula in Washington DC for dimsum and bead museum fun while I was running a conference there. I have yet to make it to Carmel to see John and Ruth's museum but it's on my list of things I want to do. My rendezvous friends are part of the fellowship of beads too - it strikes me how wide a range of backgrounds and knowledge we have among us all here at BCN. I am thrilled that Thomas is opening the Prescott bead museum and trading post - it's like a step through time to a golden era that is framed in history and memories of those who have left us.