Skyscraper to Skyscraper

A follow to my article, page 32 of the current August 2014 Bead and Button: 

 I mentioned jobbing. A popular term in the eighties, jobbing is comparable to out-sourcing. Jobbing is procuring an item that you did not import to satisfy customer demands. I imagine Amazon or Ebay can be considered a conduit to this phenomenon. In the 80's and prior, manufacturers just had neither the time nor Google desktop to find that missing bead or rhinestone.  The city was our own personal marketplace or year-round bead show. We imported more than just Czechoslovakian glass beads: we had merchandise from Taiwan, West Germany,  Japan, the Philippines , India as well as domestic items, many from Providence, Rhode Island. Having this collection, and being in a big city can bring you many other requests. "Do you have SS20 crystal AB Rhinestones, Kidney Ear Wire, or maybe a 12/0 Three Cut in Opaque Gray? Companies had beads outside their specialty stranded in boxes.

These were the days where we let our "fingers do the walking", Yellow Pages were like our Bibles and you could go to the Directory of each Skyscraper lobby in the garment district  and discover a specialty Importer.  Having a store front was Great, but that hinted at the term "retailer". If you worked on the Sixteenth floor, and were willing to brave the elevator situation, you could find that Swarovski dealer of choice.

Or if you picked up the phone you may have 100 mass of 3mm Black Fire Polish at your door step much quicker than UPS or JABLONEX could deliver. Even African Trade Beads were a phone call away in Harlem.

These Skyscrappers in the garment district were like personal department stores. There were whole floors  of beady merchandise hidden from the street level eyes, much more exclusive than your favorite URL.

I  have studied bead history books, and I've noticed many New York-based importers from the 1920's and pre-WWII credited for importing that trendy "bead of the moment". Yet after the depression and the war, all of these companies disappeared. A new crop of bead import company sprouted up during this time, of which York Beads is one.

But when i was a "kid" ( just out college), there were importer names such as Sheru Bead, Morris Berger, Di-Mar Imports, Elliot Greene, Wall Bead, Eric and K Gottfried, and Wepra, Ruben Bead. Many of these companies were never well know to the public, as were not retail store fronts, but they were the hidden treasure chests of the New York Skyline. Names with change, syllables and all, but thebeads will not.

On My last Visit to CJS, which is also on an UPPER floor not meant for the Public, I noticed this box of stones in envelopes. While I am not a stone person, i am a vintage Person, and i noticed that these packages marked "K.S. & co.", and "Made in Austria", both signs of Vintage. One Stamped N.Levy Corporation, another name I  have never heard of, and were out of Providence in the same box of Morris Berger goodies. I have always said that beads leave a trail: Memories, markings and for some, a maddening mining march!

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)

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