Thursday, June 12, 2014

Leaving a Beady Trail



                                  Leaving a Beady Trail


         

     I do not blog so much now. One of my last blogs was inspired by my talk at both the New York and New Jersey Bead Societies. Like my spontaneous Facebook posts, a thought hit me based on the times and what i am experiencing and there is a need to express them. These thoughts resulting from my latest bead society talks
made me realize i am living history. We all are, my story is only more interesting than another's if you are enamored by beads, which my readers are, so here is my latest bead babbles.

   Speaking about my 27 year post university history at Yorkbeads, not to mention my holiday and summer visits as a child, i realized that the change in economic landscape of the world and New York City has had a profound effect on the beads that we carry, discontinue or even deemed vintage. With that thought i wrote an article for bead and button magazine, August 2014, describing  my daily travels, insights and outlook toward the future. I am in a family business and my dad was the impetus of much of my "bead stylings".

  There is so much to say about my father, who often drove me to work. Most people never knew him ( he is 83 and still with us) as he had a partner who is also still with us, but was more the senior face of the store front. My dad managed his other assets, and the building we worked in, which he did sell a few years ago though left me a manageable lease. My dad  was my hero. He played and loved sports, was in the Korean war, withstood family problems and turbulent times but had a sense of history and a bead's place in time and fashion. Driving into work with dad, sitting with him early morning in his office, whatever the conversation, now seems so precious.

   My article is titled the "Politics of Beads". A strange title. The editor Stacy said i had a very mosaic yet compelling writing style. As a boy, and his journey to manhood, information and experience are picked up and digested in strange portions or patterns. Getting married, having a child changes your outlook some. Responsibility makes you think deeper, dive into areas you would not touch. Family politics, political landscape changes lead to economic adjustments. I look at my stock, or my life in beads, sometimes running across old stock items with a certain timeline of history. Beads are history, fragments left behind, they are my muse for story telling. We all have a story, with childhood memories and turbulent changes. Beads just happen to be part of mine.


(Drawing done by dad at this desk or mess of desk lol. Like Father like son)