An Addiction to Beads Begins

I started my addiction with beads in an unusual manner. In fact, I didn't even like beads at first. However, now my sunroom is devoted just to beads, as is a portion of my basement.

My first experience with beads was when I was in Junior High in the early 1980's. The "in" thing to do at my school was to exchange friendship pins that were clipped onto one's sneakers. These were simply safety pins that had beads on them, and the number of friendship pins on your sneakers was indicative of the number of friends you had. I admit it. I wasn't addicted to beads at this point. They were just a means for gaining acceptance among my peers.

In my late twenties, I was introduced to rubber stamping by a co-worker, and became addicted to that craft. We often went out on our lunch breaks to shop for stamps and inkpads. I walked into my favorite stamp store one night, and was quite annoyed to find that the owner had moved an entire table of ink pads and replaced it with a display of beads. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why anyone would want to buy these beads, when stamping was clearly a better hobby.

Little did I know that the store owner Jackie would soon be opening a bead store down the hall. I ventured in to this bead store, and had never seen so many beads in all of my life. I still didn't see what the big deal was, until I saw the display case featuring handmade lampwork glass beads. They were simply beautiful - especially the florals - and they were selling for $10 each! I was shocked at this pricing, and instead of buying one I thought to myself "I can do this myself."

And I did. I set out to learn everything I could about making lampwork beads, and with the help of a couple of books by Cindy Jenkins and James Kervin, I taught myself how to make glass beads. Now a $10 bead is my bread and butter, and I have improved my skill level such that I get $30-45 for a focal bead with floral designs.

My addiction to beads naturally evolved to include an addiction to making my own handcrafted jewelry using my beads, and I'm now including a variety of stone beads , crystal beads and metal beads along with lampwork glass beads. I love beads so much that I created a new website, Beads Central, which is an easy way to find any kind of bead you could possibly want.