Its a great time to be a consumer( That means YOU bead people)

     I live in New York City. We complain how expensive groceries are! Yet we now have Trader Joes, where you can save a bundle on milk products alone. The 99 cent slice of Pizza is back, as well as 99 cent stores and many affordable food carts.  You do not have to like it but the options we have are endless even if the aisle are not!!

Now with that in mind, imagine being a bead consumer these days. Yes, there are many beads stores but also on-line stores ,E bay and Etsy. One can buy beads in increments needed, would it be by gram or piece ,with  less need for those shoe boxes under your bed even though they definitely exist, which leads me to my point:  Can you remember it ever being a better time to be a consumer of beads?

Being primarily an importer of Czech Beads, how many times have i heard this last couple years YIKES "another new shape or another new color variety". Going back to the food theme above, you know how many times i have gone into a grocery store in NYC for potato chips and just been underwhelmed. While if i visit family say in North Carolina or Florida and see a WHOLE potato chip aisle with more brands and flavors than i can imagine i can get tingles ( no not Pringles). The fact that there are 1000 delica bead colors, 400 colors of superduos or hundred of varieties of thunder polish to fire polish cannot be a bad thing.

Yet being an importer comes with its own "Bells and Whistles".  We get to see the beads sometimes in their most primitive raw state. In plain opaque or transparent colors and we try to add flair to them. Really, as we are reminded sometimes we do not make anything but perhaps we provide the ignition to inspire creativity and opportunity. When i get to see finished work designers create perhaps adding the most appropriate metal finding or handiest bead stitch to some color combination, i at least think i created or facilitated that wonderful piece of jewelry.

I always loved the phrase the "applications are endless". There are many talented Jewelry designers and manufacturers of components that make this happen. Then there are the countless number of bead stores and such that go out of their way to share this talent, not to mention what is shared naturally with the artistic community as a whole. Lets remember beads do not grow on trees even though some wish they do, and appreciate the bead bounty we have now.


Perry

1996 Revisited

Hello Beady Friends,

    Its end of summer, been too long since my last blog, not that i lack a Facebook post or three, and time for some beady reflection. Seventeen years ago i got married, and among all the family struggles organizing the
event, I took on back to back talks, lectures, therapy sessions :-) at the New Jersey Bead Society http://www.beadsocietyofnewjersey.org/index.html and the Bead Society of New York http://www.nybead.org/. Well its deja vu  all over again, and no i am not getting married :-)

   September 19th 2013, I  will be taking  the bead bus to New Jersey and the 25th will be speaking at the big auditorium at the Fashion Institute of Technology. That being said, i ask myself how did i get here. With the wedding on the agenda and and a more bustling fashion market my senses were at a height and so was my bead babble. Still today i question, really do i have anything to say. I started in the business June 1987, with a good education and memories of a childhood in beads. As far as beads and business go, its funny how money does  come into play, totally different to your youth, where the memories are more select, like meeting Jay Strongwater on my summer job or falling in love with the boxes of Millefiori trade beads piled in a corner office. After graduation i got to go to Czechoslovakia for the first time, save money for my first apartment, in the city, and developed the urge  to impress my dad who paid for my education(with beads you can say). Beads are a serious business for me now.

  I have a eleven year old and a 35th street apartment in walking distance to the shop, yes i have a mortgage, financial worries but i also have had a life in beads and a perspective that may be different than most. I do not raw or craw, have played chutes and ladders, no brick necessary,  i do not solder, or do wire wrapping yet i feel i have something to say. I can date a beads production's era, understand the evolution of a trade bead but since i am a importer and have seen things from both the European and American sides i can influence the shaping of what new beads are in development and the coatings that should be applied.

  By no means have i reinvented the wheel. Most of my inspiration comes from the past and the artists i am fortunate enough to work with. I could say our company was the first to have the fire polish roundels which are now flooding the market from China and Czech or that I invented the Czech spike bead, yet cavemen used spikes, there are also gumdrops and aged stripes, regardless everyone of these items i visually saw in some way prior to their availability. That is the key i think. Visual senses develop from experience and i am approaching my 48th year and with a quarter century in the business i may see something others do not that are needed in our marketplace. Its these senses that make me want to collect beads, continue exploring the potential in new bead production and want to work with other artists and enthusiasts. Hope we can share these experiences next month or check me out on facebook, https://www.facebook.com/PBeads, beads are a wonderful commodity, they age and evolve each day like we do and keep my eyes acute and my fingers posting :-)

See ya soon,

Perry

Perry.

Czech Bohemian Gumdrop Beads

Spikes have been moving along nicely!  The October 2012 issue of Bead and Button will feature them on the cover with the caption "Add drama to your designs". My middle name is David not drama but there are always challenges in establishing a new product.  We have added sizes 5x8mm and 12x18mm and we are building a color selection in these new sizes, especially the 5x8mm which seems to mix seemlessly with beadwork. Although we try to put our face on this new product by no means do we believe we invented this shape. It has existed in other forms such as metal and stone,and we have seen evidence of  glass spikes from West Germany and Czechoslovakia.  The current Czech spike you see in the marketplace is the result of a friendship and business relationship of almost 25 years between an American bead importer and his Czech expediter.

Thinking about the creation of the spike, I wondered what else we could produce, even if not so edgy, that could influence beadwork.  Somehow, like a craving, a picture of fruity gumdrop candy appeared in my mind. Unlike a cabochon these gumdrops have a hole at the base for ease of use, and extend 10mm high with a base diameter of 7mm. Because they are pressed they are produced affordably and can come in many juicy colors and finishes. We have just started our production but hope they satisfy your craving for unusual beads to enhance your designs.

Thanks to many bead artists, some I have known for years and others I have met through their work with spikes, for their exceptence and appreciation of these beads. Much effort has been made, especially by my friend Jaromir,  to bring these beads to life. Your work gives us much satisfaction.

Pbeads