How a Garden or a Bead Collection Grows

Following up to my last blog, International Bead Espionage, and admiring bead work from around the world, its amazing how prolific all artist are. Have been admiring the work of http://kerrieslade.co.uk/ or the Warrior Queen and her Midnight Garden collection, where all work is based on a constant seed bead base. I have been honored that she has accented her garden with some innovative Czech beads.Building a garden, or a stock base or a bead collection takes time and perseverance. Beads do not grow on trees and needles do not come with remote control. Have been working on my aged striped seed bead collection myself. Although uses mostly modern materials it pays homage to the beads of the past, more notably trade beads, which i grew up with(more on that later). Come take a limited peak of the Midnight Garden and our aged stripe beads at Bead and Button, booth 1109, next week or can see some postings at my facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/PBeads . Hope to see you soon!

International Bead Espionage

Hello Bead Friends Worldwide, Its amazing how the push of a button on your keyboard has change how we are all connected by our favorite muse: BEADS. Although, the sty-lings around the world are diverse the common bonds or beads are similar. I imagine many beaders sitting back in their comfy zone or couch or chair working intently at their art. I see many beaders around the world loving the NEW Tila, Twin, superduo beads, as well as many classic materials. Kudos to Steven Weiss of Beadsmith fame for work for the Facebook competition: Battle of the Beadsmith. This is a International bead competition celebrating bead work from over 60 countries with 80 participants. Although it is a competition with a discerning group of judges, it is more a celebration of what we all share. That being said my eyes have been scouring the internet and have noticed how our new spike beads, has reached and flourished across the Atlantic: Kerrie Slade

Kerrie, has been "spiking up" her "Midnight Garden" with the Czech glass spikes. Her garden is based on a discipline use of using one color Black Diamond AB seed beads but has allowed her imagination to work on shapes and textures she may never have attempted. Kerrie is from Nottinghamshire UK, the home of Robin Hood lore. She has "stolen" or secured her own place in the forest, with out any use for green tones, and made the spike feminine yet strong with her Thorn Flower Pattern. Spikes can be obtained in the UK at Stichcraft, her garden lore as spread to Germany where spikes are available at seerperlen .I feel a little bit like Robin Hood myself now, so email me at perry@yorkbeads.com and will try to share your experiences with the spike beads. Perry

Spike it!

Football season is over. My Giants won!-- I realized in Tucson, not such big news in the Bead n Design world, though we appreciated the support at the Cantina. Well time to mention our new Czech beading shape --"The Spike". Like in sports, there is always a little controversy when something new arrives. Did we invent the spike? Were we the first? Like in sports, seems so trivial to give credit to just one person or moment. It is always a team effort, intentionally or not.

I first saw a spike bead, in Laura McCabe's beadwork.: http://www.justletmebead.com/ . My first reaction to her work, was like many, admiring her individuality. What seems so simple is really complex. She just adds so many textures that you lose track of the components being used. Showed a picture of Laura's work to my Czech friend, Jaromir Masek, and asked: Could you create a pressed shape like this? Frankly he said,"No" , the glass would break too easily with the off center hole at the base. Jaromir, also does not like the word: "No".

Time passed, the bead economy was struggling along on both sides of the atlantic. I had a conversation with a another amazing bead artist, Maggie Roschyk. Maggie is an author, designer and just has a restless spirit. She also loves Czech beads. She happened to mention "The Spike", and said it could be used in "so many ways". I mentioned i explored the idea, but there were technical difficulties. Forget that she said, with "Basketball Wives", Laura's work and the trend in fashion toward "street" wear, would it be skulls or steampunk like stuff, people want this: Get it!

Well, we got a Czech Glass or Bohemian glass spike bead, 7mm at the base and 17mm long, with other sizes (5x8mm and 12x18mm) in the works. Mr Masek says that these can be considered handmade. They are not pressed like round beads in a very automated fashion. They are hand pressed, and the base bead shape has to be extracted manually from the mold. They are different than Laura's spikes which are "stone points" or cabochons. They have a hole at the base and are lighter which adds to their versatility. Maggie's "fiery" Unicorn ring is ready for unveiling and will be taught at our NYC location March 23rd. I cannot wait to see what Laura comes up with next, spike or no spike.

Its a great time to be a consumer in the bead business or beading marketplace. The many brands of seed beads and crystals and other stuff just put choice at the forefront. Creating from a palette of materials so great must be inspiring to the artist. Even with a more obscure product like a spike, the more materials, sizes and colors is only gonna expand the applications. I am sure Steve Jobs and Bill Gates went through something like this, and there was no personal computers in Prehistoric days, but we know cavemen did play with spikes :-)

PBeads

Always listen to your teachers!

Its been quite a year. Be it family, economy , or sports, regardless, beads- our passion and all that they bring us- remain intact. We at www.yorkbeads.com have downsized our space but are passion remains, and our sense of creativity and exploration are enhanced. This journey has stemmed from a deep history we have had in the bead industry, but has been challenged by, something we all have in common, the internet and this thing called social networking.

We all learned our social habits differently. Influence from parents, siblings, friends are very common. I am sure many of us have been influenced by probably the most under appreciated people in our lives, our teachers. Since I graduated, they are probably the last people I wanted to see or think about. Why? No more homework, no more deadlines and no more expectations!! That was just me.

Then I entered the working world: The bead business. Sounds pretty cool. Laid- back, all types of interesting people. Its beads -they are fun. Nonetheless, beads are big business, manufactured by sizable factories with its output used by jewelers and crafters all over the world. Add the internet and social network and you have a fairly intricate supply chain for a very eclectic set of individuals: manufactures, retailers, artists, crafters consumers and oh! teachers.


I have alway done business with bead teachers but am astounded by how closely so the last five or six years. I am going to Tucson shortly where i meet many. I am gonna have the pleasure of hosting them, more specifically Laura McCabe and Maggie Roschyk, March 22-24 at our shop. Both ladies, although Laura more prominently, have influenced bead fashion if not fashion, period. Maggie, following a teacher's instinct, a Mom's steady hand, and an artist's sense or exploration, is developing a new career. It's amazing how much that have inspired me, if not by instruction, but by their instincts and taste.

That being said, there are 2 ladies, teachers, who have probably inspired me more. This is in part by proximity( they work, create and teach in NYC ), in part by their love for Czech beads, and in part by being so close to their story and development. In short, one day several years ago Bert Freed ( The mom or chicken) and Dana Freed (The daughter or egg) came into my office and simply said we are gonna show you that bead crochet will change the way you will sell or purchase Czech beads and that it will become and integral part of your future business plan of catering to the public. We always catered to the public but we spent a majority of our time servicing the likes of Miriam Haskel, Liz Claiborne and Ralph Lauren to name a few. Now bead crochet may have had its ups and downs at York, but Dana and Bert have stayed the course. They have taught bead crochet continuously, have created jewelry through their company Chicken and the Egg designs, and have raised money for the charity The Freshman 15 (please google). Today they announced their book will be available on Amazon: Bead Crochet Jewelry: An Inspired Journey Through 27 Designs.


Congratulations Bert and Dana! ... and always listen to your teachers!!

Perry

How the Czech Bead and Glass Industry was formed

Courtesy of Vladimir Sulc, Preciosa Ornela USA rep

The story goes like this: Glass manufacturing arrived to Europe from North Africa via the Mediterranena Sea in late 13th century. Glass beads (seed beads) were used in the decoration of mummies in Egyptian pyramids (you can still see them today). With the development of city-states of Italy glass manufacturing migrated to Venice, the center of commerce of that time. The island of Murano, right next to Venice, became a center of Eurpean glassmaking.

In early 18th century people from Northern Bohemia (mainly peasants who were idle during the winter months) started coming south to Venice in search of work for the winter. There they gradually learned the trade of glass making. Northern Bohemia thus got all that was needed for glassmaking: wood for heating the ovens, running water for cooling and, most importantly, the know how "borrowed" from the Venetians. By the late 18th century (the period you are talking about) both Murano and Northern Bohemia were centers of European glassmaking. While Murano concentrated more and more on art glass, Northern Bohemia became the center of industrial scale production.

Beads were used as a form of currency in trade with many indigenous peoples - mostly in Africa (chevrons from Murano became a srandard) but as well on the coast of Alaska, BC and WA. Russian fur traders were the first white people to visit this territory and they traded cobalt blue beads, which remain to be poplular in the Northwest, for furs. Although it is impossible to prove, it is almost certain that these beads came from Northern Bohemia via Russain bead traders and fur traders to Alaskan native tribes.

If you are ever in Jablonec nad Nisou, there is a real nice museum of beads and jewelry. There you would probably find beads from that period of time. The industry during those years was fragmented. It was both in German and Czech hands. Big part of it was a cottege industry - individuals making glass beads at home over the winter months. There was one German family - the Riedl family, which build over many generations several factories on an industrial scale (mainly seed beads). It is possible these the cobalt beads were made by the Riedl factory, but it is a pure speculation on my part.

If you are interested to find more about it, you would probably need to go to Jablonec, research the museum and talk to the people there. They would, I am sure, be able to give you more information.

I hope this helps.

Vladimir

Hurricane??? Good time to blog

Times like these, with natural disaster warnings being posted all over TV, alerts by our Mayor, who is closing our subways and bridges as I blog, it's a good time to be reflective -- and what better topic than beads. A bead is a symbol of history. It too is exposed to climate and natural forces just like we are. As well, beads have timelines -- marked by their place, exposure and importance in our history (fashion, politics or personal). Thanks to Susan's question regarding our Pink Crow Beads, http://www.yorkbeads.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=Y&Product_Code=Z6006%2FPINK&Category_Code=

and

our 7x7mm large hole faceted beads, http://www.yorkbeads.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=Y&Product_Code=Z3%2F7+COBALT&Category_Code=

I present you a history of these two beads, both imported by our company during my tenure, and a little snapshot about their present and a glimpse of their future in the world of Vintage beads and life in general:


I know what people label as vintage is a liberal evaluation. I have been in the bead business a good part of my life but officially started 1987. Crow beads and other Sintered beads were made by Preciosa (the crystal company). 1987 was toward the very end of the communist era and they announced that they were closing this factory, which also made tile beads and some geometric shapes (mostly seen with some brown spotted Picasso-like coatings) around 1989. These beads were mostly opaque and vibrant in hippie fashion and well as rosary and ethnic fashion jewelry. Sintered glass, I believe, are a powder mixture baked in a mold as opposed to other Czech glass which is pressed, chopped, polished, etc. Yorkbeads (Est. 1924) placed one last crow bead order based on demand at the time just before the factory closed. We were told this was our last chance, as the factory was closing and all machinery was being put in storage. This was told to us by JABLONEX. Jablonex was simply a government agency that marketed Czech Glass beads, including Preciosa's, to the world. Once communism ended the individual factories were able to take control of their own marketing. Preciosa is an example of marketing success. The crow bead was a secondary item to us at the time. Elliot Greene was the biggest crow bead importer at the time. Pink was a little more expensive (these were so cheap back then, maybe $4-$5 a mille or kilo so other colors were maybe $1.00 less) and had that aura of "hard to get" so, of all colors YORK ordered, for some reason pink remained in stock. (I guess 'cause we thought it more valuable and ordered more, even if used mostly for native American fashion and not general fashion.) The color is very vintage, because it contains gold dust. I think it is impossible to get that color any more. In seed beads they try to do a color-fast dyed alternative now. Attempts of seed beads in that color are purple-casted now. (We have a decent amount of 10/0 and 11/0 ones from the JABLONEX era, a little darker than crow but not bad.) Anyway, the Crow bead production ceased. Roller beads, India and China alternatives hit the market and over time the Czech versions have diminished in bulk. Today, 9mm Pony beads are a major component of fashion jewelry dedicated to youth, and the Czech crow bead has slowly disappeared while alternatives (Fimo, wood and more) are in abundant access to overseas jewelry manufacturers. I have no doubt this a vintage bead. I see many beads on E bay termed "vintage". My interpretation of vintage is determined by 3 questions. First, can that bead or color be made today? Second, can the quality be duplicated? And third, is the factory that made them still in business? We can examine the usage of vintage more thoroughly with the second bead Susan mentioned in her email.


7x7mm (4mm hole) cobalt fire polish ovals were termed "Ornelka" in the mid-nineties by JABLONEX, named after the factory Ornela. They were replicas of so-called "Russian" beads, which were popular Czech trade beads traded to Russia for fur coats as the story goes. (You may want to check out Picard materials for a more complete history.) These beads were made and cut by Ornela, JABLONEX's seed bead factory. Again, JABLONEX was just a marketing brand, Ornela the seed bead factory. The beads were chopped from glass rods like seed beads but were faceted by pins like fire polish. JABLONEX closed 2 years ago. According to my criteria this means the beads are vintage. But, maybe not?? The beads were made in the JABLONEX era. The term "Ornelka" came from Ornela, which is still open today, and whose sister factory Zasada makes all the glass rods in the region. Preciosa did not buy JABLONEX, but they sort-of bailed them out of bank debt. In return Preciosa got control of the Ornela and Zasada factories and formed a company Preciosa-Ornela. I buy all my seed bead products from Preciosa Ornela. Technically, they can make these 7x7mm "Ornelka" beads. But, at least in North America, between pricing and the downturn of these beads in fashion, "Ornelka" beads are disappearing. We do not have much left. So, if these are not vintage like the crow beads you can definitely make a case for them, and real soon, in my opinion.

The hurricane will hit in about twelve hours and let's hope it will pass with no major damage. It is a great time to reflect and to catch up on reading, or maybe like with this blog, your past. Our pasts are as varied as our beads, and what is vintage and dear to some may not be to others. Facts may get distorted but beauty does not!!

I'd love to hear your thoughts about what "vintage" means to you. Be safe.

PBeads

Inventory

Every bead counts , especially these days. If you do not know we sold the building(Dad did), and we had to take 10,000 square feet and consolidate them into 6,000 square feet of beads (also desk, computers, etc). You may not think we have that much space now but we have the whole basement below us. It is complicated task, consolidating lots of odd lots of inventory into an older and smaller space of shelves, making them accesible to fill orders. Shelving location codes really do help!! Its nice knowing what we have, no matter how much i think i can remember every bead. Can really see my 25 year bead reflection through this process. Why did I buy this, why did this not sell, oh that is ugly.Humbling experience indeed, but i do look forward to some new beads in my future!!