Yesterday I spoke by phone with a person whose family has been in the bead biz for 40 years. They have online sales through eBay and a web site, and also a brick and mortar store front. The store was considered non-essential and has been closed for over 2 months, with questionable re-opening date.

As a result, the business is struggling to survive. Bead shows have also been shut down everywhere so that is another loss of revenue for this seller and many others as I'm sure you're all aware.

I thought I'd pass along my plea to the global bead community - to do whatever you can to continue purchasing from your favorite bead sellers in the hope that they can survive until the virus crisis passes. I'm sure this is particularly tough on the places with storefronts - perhaps some of them are able to do sidewalk pick-up orders, so call & check.

Here's a design idea with some snake beads. Since I had limited quantities of matching ones - I used round beads to transition from the snake beads to smaller size snakes or other shapes that match the color scheme. I also purchased a few more strands to fill out my designs. Snake beads are relatively inexpensive when compared to other vintage and antique trade beads - less financial hit adding them to your jewelry designs & collectibles.

Happy Sunday & good health to all!

Note: the bottom strand has two different sizes of French (presumed Bapterosses) snake beads, and the upper strand has Czech snakes, disks, and cylindrical beads,with a couple of round Prosser beads as the transitions.