Say Christine, take some pics of piles of snow and maybe the Lucky Tucson Travelers will have pics of bead piles to warm ya up! :D

It looks as though it's worse in the midwest and New England, so everyone please take care.

I hope all of you in Tucson are enjoying yourselves. I'm sure you are. Keep posting, as those of us who are homebound have lots of time to look at this site.

I'm "sorry" to report that both the weather and beads were spectacular in Tucson. I just got back from 3 full days at the Tucson shows. The weather was fine, sunny and 60's-70's - almost too warm on the opening day of some of the shows - Friday the 28th. I forgot my hat and was worried about sunburn while walking around the outdoor venues.

Of course the trade beads were piled deep at dozens of booths belonging to the African traders, both at the African Village, which is an outdoor bazaar under tents, and at the G&LW Grant Inn (previously called Rodeway Inn) show, which is under a large single tent, as well as inside adjacent motel rooms and a small convention building.

It was good to be a buyer, as the prices were lower than last year. At least one expensive strand was dropped in price by 30% from the time that another forumite asked about it, and the next day when I asked. I subsequently decided to buy it. I have not been collecting Venetians & other trade beads for even 2 years, so I had to take others' word for it that some strands I picked up for $35 had typically been selling for $50-60.

The most incredible part of the Tucson experience is that one can talk nonstop about beads from dawn 'til dusk, and beyond, in full knowledge that no one will be bored and instead be as enthusiastic as you are.

I am not a great photographer, but here are a few pictures from the weekend. The first is a typical table of trade beads at the African Village venue. This is just the corner of one table - most booths had 12-15 tables in their tent space. Everything from fine old Venetian fancies, to brand new "stuff" from China and India, could be found. In the African Village, a large number of the tents were for African art objects, from vary large to very small, with 8-10 vendors of mostly beads. It literally takes hours, though, to pore over even a small amount of the bead inventory. EVen though I did not feel rushed, I had the distinct impression that I was not able to see all the important beads since the tables are piled very deep with the merchandise.

The second picture shows the other main reason to go to Tucson. From left to right, here are John Picard, Bassem Elias, and Ruth Picard, in earnest conversation about beads. There were two ad hoc dinner meetings for bcn forumites and friends, which were very fun. Many beads and bead stories were passed around the table for both nights. And during the day, we also continued many enjoyable discussions out on the sales floor of the Grant Inn show, which contains most of the higher end collectible bead tables, all the way from ancient to modern.

My group and I arrived in Tucson today, and as always, went to the Grant Inn show first. There were still plenty of beads to pour over. Unlike previous years, I spent a lot of time in the back building (behind the registration area), and not so much in the tent. However, I managed to spend about fifteen minutes with Joyce and Bassem, before it was time to move on. I hope I will get to return before we exit on Saturday.

The weather was cooler today, but still pleasant.

I chuckled when I noticed that the "$1.00" booths have now become the "$1.30" booths.

It's difficult to remember to take photos, but I'll try.

The big storm across America is getting a lot of people down. One of our participants is still stuck in NYC. And apparently she won't be flying out tomorrow either. I hope you all stay warm. I'm sorry you are not with us.

Jamey

Keep up the good work with reports and the occasional photo when you can. Someday I'll join your tour, but for now, I (like others) live through your stories these February trip weeks! Thank you!!

Note: big hug to Christine and sisterray... hang in there, I am shoveling and skating away on the thin ice of a new day here in Pennsylvania also. Our photo ops are pretty grand too... icicles make interesting photos! (grin)

Today in Tucson was colder than Mr. Freeze's tush.

We first went to To Bead True Blue—a show I really do not like very much. But I found some great bargain beads there. Many stalls had strands of beads for $1.00..., $2.00 and up to $5.00 and $6.00, that were worth having.

Morning at the African Village was aborted, because we were shivering and our hands hurt from the cold; and so we went to The Best Bead Show instead.

At TBBS, I bought a group of fantastic beads from Harold Williams Cooney—whom I met a couple of years ago at the BABE Show in Oakland. I think he is the best new glass-beadmaker in the country now, and I love his stuff. I makes traditional Venetian filigrana work, as vessels and beads. Before now in traditional white-in-clear glass. But now in great colors.

I will look forward to showing these things and more when I return home.

Thursday, I plan to bundle-up in as many layers as possible.

JDA.

It was so cold Wednesday night, the water in the hotel fountain froze--and looks like an ice sculpture.

We went to the Holidome first today. I bought four strands of lapis beads (two for a client), and had to use my reserve of cash. Then I found the Polish company that's selling heat-treated Colombian copal as "green amber"—and I intended to buy a necklace, but they too were only accepting cash and checks. So I passed for a second time. It irks me to have to buy this stuff as "Caribbean amber"—but if I don't I won't have a specimen to use in any educational context. The necklace I attempted to buy was $60., and therefore intended to sell for at least $120. i passed entirely on a necklace of BRIGHT (read "phony-looking") RED beads, that would have set me back $110. I read through their handout, in which they rationalize why it's OK to sell this stuff as "amber." They even admit it has been autoclaved. (Heated.)

At the Gem Mall (near the Holidome), at Wild Things Beads (the people I went to the Czech Republic with in May), I bought two strands of plastic beads, that resemble the many ellipsoidal shapes we seen (as from Africa and the Middle "East, imitating amber), but that, in this instance, are nearly colorless and somewhat gray, with a certain chatoyance. Nice looking, and not expensive.

Also at the Gem Mall, I finally managed to go to the silver wholesaler who has a room full of beads and findings, and bought scads of these and gold plated and gold-filled beads and clasps for future use.

It was still early, so we returned to the Grant Inn. Bassem did not come in today, because the place where he's staying had a burst pipe overnight, and I guess it was a mess, and he couldn't bathe today. Tomorrow, he is having dinner with us, and showing the Group a selection of his beads—which I am sure they will enjoy.

At Hands of the Hills, Steve Dunning and I chatted for a short time, and he gave me a necklace of new pumtek beads—of the type that have incomplete patterns, due to the lack of porosity of certain areas of the stone. Very kind of him. I bought a few strands new Afghan serpentine beads.

More later. Jamey

I was literally drooling as i read your and Jamey's report!! Thank you so much! For you others who are attending, please do not forget us!We want so much to live this show through you all!

Here's another special treat that we had in Tucson - the opportunity to be up close and personal with an incredibly rare Venetian bead, worn casually on a necklace by Walter Chavez, a collector and seller from Toronto, via Peru, his homeland. The bead is about 1 1/4" diameter, and is a milky ball of glass with a variety of Venetian millefiori cane slices that appear to be floating in the sphere. I believe only 3-4 of these are known to exist.

Others took pictures of the bead which may be better than this one. I'm sure they will post when they get back home. The second pic is of Walter (on the left), who is attending Tucson for the first time. He confessed to being staggered by the quantity of beads available at this annual festival. Matt from TigerTiger is on the right.

Hi Rosanna,

I have documented rather more than "3 or 4" early Venetian millefiori beads, over the past twenty-something years. Four of the beads I have photographed are in the new edition of The History of Beads (2009). I know of five beads from Peru—including the first one found in the early 1980s—recovered by a Southern Californian archaeologist I was assisting at that time.

the most surprising thing about Walter's bead is the red star cane. That's new to me.

The exterior glass is not "milky," but rather is quite clear. However, the surface is battered—rendering it somewhat clouded. If the surface is oiled, the interior will be much more visible.

Jamey

that will make it more affordable when I decide to purchase one - LOL!

Lots of gold foil inside also, and a Purple chevron cane

There was a booth that had some lovely examples of Indian-made glass beads, many decorated with Venetian miilefiori slices. The seller, named Clinton, only sells at Tucson. I believe these beads are from the 1960's-1970's, so not antiques, but nice examples of "trade bead designs" that seem to have been inspired by African necklaces, right down to the brass mask pendants.

Thanks for giving us a first look at Tucson! Very familiar, but also new things to be seen.
About the Indian millefiori beads: I was told they were made no earlier than 1980. Do you have other information on their production time?
Curious about the pendants: I would have thought they were still African made. But these are made in India?
About the prices: hope for buyers they will stay low, but for the sellers it's the opposite ofcourse.
Please keep posting cool beads and people!

Hi Rosanna,

Since I collected beads in the (late) 1960s and '70s, and later, I can say with confidence that the vast majority of glass beads from India (and Pakistan)—not that there were so many—were small plain crude furnace-wound beads. Many were sub-spheroidal oblates and rings, and in limited colors in the '60s/early '70s. In 1974 multicolored furnace-wound beads were introduced. these were larger, less crude, and had more shape varieties (barrels, longer fusiforms, and press-molded angular shapes). The first appearance of mosaic-glass beads was 1980. These included bad copies of Venetian beads, more-attractive flower beads supposedly to resemble ancient millefiori, and the first wave of face beads.

I would not characterize the beads you show as "older." In fact, they my be fairly recent. Necklaces of Indian glass with African-inspired brass pendants are something of a chimera.

Peter Francis' booklet on The Glass Beads Of India (1979) demonstrates the beads he collected in India at that time.

Jamey

Thanks for giving the correct dating for these necklaces, Jamey.

I don't remember exactly where- the shows on that stretch all kind of blur together

On my final full day in Tucson, I went to the Riverpark to see Walt Seifried and Abdul Wais. Abdul was selling these brass pendants—so I asked about them.

While they supreficially resemble somewhat similar-looking mask pendants from Africa, they are not African.

I asked, "are these from India?" He initially said "no."

He said they are 'made in Orissa, and made to resemble African masks,' and that 'they combine Africa with tribal.' (Not precise quotes—but more the gist of the conversation.)

I said, "but Orissa IS IN India."

So there you have it. These are recent brass pendants from Orissa, India, made with congruencies to African constructions—strung onto necklaces of RECENT Indian glass beads. They are not a combination of Indian glass beads with African elements, and are not "old" nor "older." I have to believe they were made in India, just as we see them.

In the past, some Naga ornaments with facial features came to them from Orissa—so there is some history of making (vaguely) similar brass objects. You can see from the attached map that Orissa is the State south of Nagaland, in India.

I'll show the piece Abdul gave me when I get photos edited. Thanks Abdul!

Jamey

August 10, 2022 - An Update

A few days ago, at the most-popular online auction/sales site, I have seen new constructions FROM CHINA, that have clearly been made to copy the Indian products that were the topic of the above discussion.

And, of course, these new Chinese products are likewise misrepresented.

Although they have the same sort of pseudo-ethnic appeal as the Indian constructions, they are also different enough to be recognizable as Chinese. I show two specimens here.

JDA.

Heard that the prices are lower this year! Is this really true and if, it is, is it because of the economy? I have never attended the Tucson show because i have been told about outrageous bead prices. I always felt that i would need thousands of dollars to replenish by bead inventory! Is this true?? You insiders, please give us the real scoop!! Thank you!

I'm very poor at bargaining, but yes, the prices are lower than last year. I tend to ask for a price, then just walk away if I don't want to pay. There are few cases where the bead or strand is something I want so badly that I can't leave it.

I think that 2008 was a peak year for the sellers at Tucson, and that makes sense since the economy was also peaking. In 2009, business was down, but in 2010, it was really, really bad. Sellers were probably wishing for a quick rebound in 2010, and when that didn't happen, they had to do something drastic. I went to Tucson last year, and did not find any bargains, so I did not buy much. I was also a fairly new collector and was thinking I could find the same beads elsewhere in the future, so I kept passing over nice items.

So this year, it seemed that the sellers realized they had to make sales "or else". Although, one seller that I asked a price from, gave me what I thought was "last year's" price, and since I didn't care about the strand that much, I did not return with a lower offer. For the condition of the beads, I thought he was overpriced by 100%. Another seller had a single bead overpriced by a factor of 3, so I assumed she did not actually want to sell it, and told her so. There does seem to be some showmanship going on there since many sellers are also serious collectors. But the other sellers gave me very good prices and I was very happy with what I came home with. I'll post photos as soon as I can get to it.

I also think that if you are buying a lot of items from one seller, you will be able to bargain for lower pricing.

At any rate, I found this year that going to Tucson was the best way to find specific beads that I was looking for. Possibly if I waited long enough, they would appear online, but this was much more fun and I got to see many more beads all in one place. And of course buy many other items that were not on my shopping list.

Final thought - I don't think prices have returned to the level that people remember from the 60's or 70's, and probably never will, unless there is a total collapse of the economy. So yes, you will need 1000's of dollars to replace any major amount of Venetian trade beads, but this year it looked to me that you would get about 30% more beads for your money than last year.

Thank you very much!

Bead prices are up and down, prices are too subjective to properly evaluate here without accurate data. To say prices are down would be an incorrect generalization. I found the more desirable beads for collectors have held their values and the prices have gone higher again this year. For example Amazonite strands took a big price dip last year but rebounded and are much higher this year. Kiffa beads have gone up as well, the quality was fairly nice, there were 3 strands from a private collection out of N. Africa (the condition of the strands leads me to believe they were 1990's collected), 2 were shorter and went for $3,000 each and a longer one was $3,500... Bully had an average strand for $5,000, that would be the highest I have seen so far in any year at any Tucson venue! There were several nice Bodom beads that were up in price and also a few rare chevrons in the thousands....I did not price the "trade" strands but the a Speo strand I liked was almost $3,000, also up from previous years. Nice Coral was up almost $2 per gram, I saw some starting at $8-12 per gram (great color), and some a low as $2 per gram, the better grades were higher..... also Amber and Phenolic were up from past years. More when I get the chance to reflect

Where do I get whatever that is underneath the piles of beads, covering the table??!!

I have once bought some similar cloth. There must be a better source, but I bought it at etsy.com. Below is a link to another seller of fabric that also shows african trade beads, but is not as colourful.

Also a picture of what my mother in law made for me with the fabric.