Holey Beads! The art of beading just keeps getting bigger
The Register-Guard, Oregon
By one definition, a bead is anything with a hole in it, which goes a little way toward explaining the broad appeal of beading, a hobby/craft/art form – whatever you want to call it – that remains popular tens of thousands of years after nomadic hunter-gatherers first took a break from killing stuff so they could adorn themselves with perforated seashells.
“Beads are accessible to everyone,” says Stacy Bierma, owner of Harlequin Beads & Jewelry in Eugene. “You can find something that you like in your budget.”
Bierma sells inexpensive beads that can be turned into bracelets for just a few dollars and gem stones that go for several hundred dollars apiece.
Her own collection includes antique amber beads and Italian-made “trade beads,” once used to buy gold, ivory and even slaves from Africa. She also has beaded headwear and an ancient African bead strand estimated at 2,000 years old.
“It’s the earliest form of adornment, a form of self-expression,” Bierma says. “It’s also kind of addictive.”
She should know. Bierma’s store could be a monument to the narcotic properties of beads. She draws lots of repeat customers from all walks
of life and, on a typical day, her store is abuzz with all sorts of beading activity.
Bierma’s clients include beginning beaders, Saturday Market artists, crafting fanatics, Girl Scout troups and bridal parties in search of novel group activities.
The majority of her clients are women, but Harlequin does attract a few men – some of them dabblers, some of them serious artists, some of them fishermen in search of colorful flair for their lures.
Bierma’s business has grown exponentially in the more than two decades since she started selling beads out of a backpack at Grateful Dead shows while still in her teens. Now she owns the 4,700-square-foot building that houses Harlequin. She employs 20 people and offers health and dental coverage.
All because of beads.
“In the last 10 years beads have just taken off,” Bierma says. “Now there’s a bead store in almost every town.”
Harlequin isn’t the only store that sells objects with holes in them. There are at least a half-dozen other outlets in the area that cater to beading enthusiasts, and that doesn’t include the hundreds of bead artists who sell their creations at craft fairs and other locations. At the Oregon Country Fair earlier this month, where Bierma set up a booth for the 22nd consecutive year, she estimated a quarter of the more than 400 vendors were selling some sort of beads.
Even with all those beads, Gabrielle Guidero believes that there’s still room for more retailers. The manager of the recently opened Azillion Beads in west Eugene, she says beading is only going to get bigger as more people discover how enjoyable it can be.
“We see people come in as hobbyists and eventually start their own business and become artists,” Guidero says. “I talked to a lady who took her beads on a cruise and ended up selling (her jewelry) on board the ship.”
Guidero, whose family also owns a flagship Azillion Beads store in Bend, says she believes that many people are drawn to beading by the sense of calm it provides.
That’s the case with Kendra Francesco of Eugene who started beading four years ago. She says beading helps her relax after work.
“I think the thing I like the best is the instant gratification of it,” says Francesco, who uses a process called wire twisting to turn beads into dangling silver jewelry. “You can see immediately what you’re doing.”
The learning curve never ends for beaders such as Francesco, says Nome May, a Eugene artist who’s been working with beads
