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Collectible Beads: Worthy to be in your Stash |
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Written by Dara Spiotto
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Monday, 17 March 2008 |
 COLLECTIBLE BEADS
Worthy to be in your Stash
The pleasure has been mine lately. I’ve been hanging out with beady friends, and have had the joy of peeking into others bead stashes. What a mish mash! There are no similarities from stash to stash. Some collect specific stuff, like buttons or filigree. Some indulge in vintage or steel cuts. Others find one kind of contemporary bead and have to have it in all colors.
One fun thing I noticed was that some collections were working stashes, with the beads being used and replaced constantly. In other bead cases I saw dusty beads that had been there for a very long time, their owners not able to part with them. I guess I fall into both categories. I have some beads that have been in the case forever and will probably be there for eons to come. Other beads I love to use and keep having to replenish, like 3 mm goldstone faceted rounds (like they weren’t sparklie enough without those facets!)
Bead Exposed
Getting to dip into the variety of beads that were in the room that day, it got me thinking of beads that are definitely worthy of stash-dom. Beads that are fun to use, but also worthy of squirreling away until a future time. So get your stash out and check to see if you’ve got any of these babies in there….
 The Sweetest of Beads
I’m talking about sugar beads! These delicious morsels were originated in Japan in the early 1900’s, but it didn’t take long for other bead manufacturers in countries around the world to put them into production. Sugar beads are beads coated with small grains of plastic (on a plastic base) or (glass on a glass base) that look like granulated sugar. I’ve seen them in all kinds of shapes and sizes and colors. My favorites are the two tone ones, and the rounds in berry colors. They look so much like real berries! The Germans really perfected the glass sugar bead around 1935, in my opinion. They experimented over decades and came up with some groovy color combinations, and made tons of them. They’re still making gorgeous sugar beads today, also. Lucky us! Using them in your work will add amazing texture and a great color zing!
 Wedding Cake Beads
Ohhhh... The vintage version of these will make your heart leap! These beads began in Murano, Italy and were made specifically for women. The delicate flowers nestled in among strings and strands of goldstone proved to be irresistible, and these beads have been made ever since. Full strands were once made with graduating sizes, all in the same color. The really old beads from the 16th to 17th century used spangles of mica instead of copper goldstone or aventurine goldstone. They have a more silvery tone in the metallic striping than the beads made later with copper. I have a lovely necklace where I wire wrapped a small wedding cake bead with a tiny spacer and a 3 mm clear crystal on each side (to protect it from the wire). Each bead is different, but all are pastel in color. I only wear it with one outfit that I have, on special occasions.
 Old Pavé Beads
Pavé simply means “set with stone”. The vintage pavé beads that can be found today have lovely old colors of Swarovski in them, many retired. Common pavé beads are round, but sometimes you can find them in cones, barrels, and tubes. I love the ones that have multiple sizes of stones in them, or multiple colors. It's fun use them as one link with other random texture beads. Stone, wood, you know... different textures linked with a little bit of chain to separate them. Just beautiful.
Stash Away What You Like!
I’m a sucker for two-tone vintage German drops. They’re more tapered and slender than the drops made today, and that they’ve got two colors going on is irresistible to me. And I’ve also got a hankering for nailheads in shapes from nature. Acorns, butterflies, flowers, they’re so beautiful and hard to find. I buy all I stumble across. Oh, and German glass snail shells. I’ve got bazillions of them and still buy whatever I see. What if it’s a color I don’t have? Or a size? The more wacky the color, the happier I am.
 My bead stash case is actually quite small. I only allow myself to keep my beads in there, and not grow into other containers. If there’s something wonderful that won’t fit in there, then something else has to come out to make room. It can be torturous to pick and choose, but it can force me to use beads that have been slumbering in my case for eons. Rotation is good. Scary, but good. So what’s in your stash case, hm?
“Beads are intimate and personal. In addition to being visually pleasing, they feel good to wear and hold.” - Kristen Franzen Orr |
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