Draw a bead on style
ON the long, lovely necks of ramp models, sewn onto chic evening bags and worked into intricate needlepoint designs, beads are back.
Actually, they never went away. But they have been making a big splash since the ‘90s, when hobbyists discovered how to make their own jewelry and how to work beads into their craft projects.
“Beads have been a part of people’s consciousness since Neolithic times, and it’s exciting to see them becoming a fashion-forward part of American society again,” said Alice Korach, editor of Bead & Button magazine. “All the fashion and style magazines show a lot of people wearing bead jewelry, and that’s why it’s so popular. Those who don’t even know bead magazines exist are buying and stringing beads.”
The bimonthly circulation of the Wisconsin-based publication has grown to more than 150,000 copies. In August the company will launch BeadStyle, a second magazine devoted to making fashion jewelry.
Beading has grown so much that supplies and magazines have made their way into chain stores, including Michaels and even Kmart. Hobbyists can also shop at bead shows across the country and learn about beads at meetings of societies in Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange counties.
From the front window of her little shop on 5th Street in downtown Huntington Beach, Marla Gotsman, a slender, girlish woman with long, angelic curls, saw it all coming. Stop under the big blue awning that says “Gotsie’s” and she’ll welcome you into the burgeoning world of beads.
Gotsman has been working with beads for decades. She started in her native Canada when a Native American friend showed her the traditional art of stringing seed beads as her Ojibwa ancestors did.
Twelve years ago Gotsman’s husband encouraged her to make beads her living. Now she’s riding a wave as more and more customers feed their new hobby at her shop.
It’s filled with fine things to string from around the world: sparkling Swarovski crystals, white-spotted African trade beads, Venetian glass beads, semiprecious stones such as turquoise, freshwater pearls, pre-1960s vintage Czech beads, oceans of tiny glass seed beads in a rainbow of colors.
Her card calls it “the hard-core bead store,” but it’s a friendly place where the clients can be divided into two groups: those working with seed beads on projects that take five to 30 hours, and those who love designing their own jewelry. Often people will walk in off the street because the glittery beads have caught their eye.
“I show them how to do the basic crimp bead on a jewelry wire, and their friends at work will say, ‘Oh, can you make me that?’ If you make a bracelet, you get a compliment at work and people are blown away,” she says, “because if you don’t know the process, it seems a lot more difficult than it really is.”
Gotsman doesn’t teach classes on fashion jewelry. She simply flits about her shop, jewelry pliers ready, as tunes by James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg and Paul Simon play in the background.
She helps customers select beads and shows them how to get a strand started. With a nip of the pliers she squashes closed a crimp bead that connects a clasp to a jewelry wire. Then she offers instruction on how to finish it at home.
“Their biggest fear is they’ll make a mistake,” she says. “I say the worst is you waste a crimp bead, which is a few pennies. If you put beads on and don’t like it, take it apart and do it again. That’s part of the process.”
Gotsman tells beginners to start with jewelry wire, crimp beads and pliers and to pick colors they like. “Don’t get too detailed or intricate,” she says. “Do something for yourself. You’ll be successful doing something you want to wear.”
Beginning beading can be very inexpensive, she says. Get a yard of wire for 75 cents instead of an entire spool. Buy two crimp beads and a 25-cent clasp. Then pick out a few pretty beads. “The whole sale would be just over $2,” says Gotsman.
Those who find they love it can move on to semiprecious stones. Most of those cost $5 to $20 per strand, $120 a strand for the fancy stuff. Mix and match beads, stones and crystals, add sterling silver spacers to create your own designs, and you’re rolling.
Or choose a simple leather cord and a pendant. She points out a mandala-like jade piece. “A woman came in and showed me a piece she bought in a department store, $35. She came here and got the exact same piece for $7.”
Working with beads, you can spend minutes or hours on a project. Gotsie’s does offer classes each Saturday on the intricacies of stringing seed beads. The sessions cost $35 each and run 4 1/2 to five hours, but the time passes quickly. “That was always my passion, the little seed beads,” Gotsman said. “It’s much slower, but it’s therapeutic. I get a lot of people telling me it calms them down..”
Whether you’re into the tiny beads or the stones, just holding the raw materials in your hands is inspiring, Gotsman said. Her eyes light up when she talks about beads in history. “Beads were always, from the beginning of mankind. You go back and they were using bones for beads. Man always wore beads, and there is a fascination with the stones.”
*
All about beads
Shows: Las Vegas Bead Show, Palace Station Hotel & Casino, May 30-June 1, (505) 894-1293. The Whole Bead Show, Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, Aug. 15-17, (800) 292-2577.
Classes: Gotsie’s, 207 5th St., Huntington Beach. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Beading classes each Saturday. (714) 969-5717. Michaels stores throughout Southern California; Michaels will offer a free one-hour demo on creating a beaded mosaic frame on March 2 at 1:30 p.m. Details and locations: www.michaels.com.
On the Web: Bead Society of Los Angeles: https://home.att.net/~beadsla; Bead Society of Orange County: www.beadsocietyoc.org; Bead Society of San Diego County: MiMamaRosa@aol.com or (619) 692-9960.