MAKING YOUR OWN
The beauty of beads can also lie in the creating, whether shaping and baking polymer clay or twirling molten glass. Lisa St. Martin, an internationally recognized glass artist, brings the power of fire to an art that dates back thousands of years. Indeed, so treasured was the skill that 13th-century Venice sequestered its artisans on an island to better safeguard craft secrets. Despite this, beadmaking proliferated in neighboring countries, with the beads carried and traded around the world by European explorers during the Renaissance and beyond.
That's how European glass beads found their way to native tribes in the early days of America. Now many people are crafting their own beads, with St. Martin part of an "explosion" in national artistry that began about two decades ago, says Beadazzled owner Diamanti.
At Beadazzled in Dupont Circle, assistant manager Kathleen Manning, center, teaches students, including Jane Fines, left, of Greenbelt and Leilani Wagner, right, of Alexandria, how to make earrings and other pieces of jewelry. Several bead stores across the region offer classes.
(Lauren Victoria Burke - For The Washington Post)
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As she trains her torch's blue flame on a glass rod, St. Martin reminisces about those early days as one of Virginia's only bead artists, a time when she had to make her own equipment, including a kiln from a toolbox, because what she needed wasn't yet available for purchase. In a large studio at the Washington Sculpture Center in Southeast, she carefully winds softening, sparkly dichroic glass around a slim steel rod, then transfers the hot bead to her toolbox kiln to cool slowly to avoid breakage. Past results shimmer in nearby boxes -- large beads with lacy surfaces, translucent blue and orange starbursts.
"I switched from a furnace [and large glass pieces] to a torch so I could stay at home with my boys," says St. Martin, explaining her artistic development. Her home studio in Reston certainly influenced her oldest son, David, 18, an accomplished bead artist preparing his own portfolio for a possible college scholarship.
What makes for a quality bead? Look for clean, smooth holes and a nice shape, say mother and son. Avoid rough or sharp spots, air bubbles and scum. "I always tell my students that they should focus initially on shape rather than color," says St. Martin, who teaches beadmaking at the center and the Corcoran College of Art and Design.
BEAD BARGAINS
Of course, all this beadmaking and buying can set you back a few bucks. Beads can range from a few cents at specialty stores to upward of $100 for some antique and contemporary glass beads. Catalogues advertised in trade magazines such as Ornament and Bead & Button and online stores may offer more reasonable prices, though making sight-unseen decisions can prove difficult. Shopping around can yield the best deals.
But beading can also save you money, according to St. Martin, and provide oodles of creative satisfaction. "You can buy quality materials for a lot less than buying a necklace at a department store -- and create something truly unique," says the glass artist, whose 2- to 4-inch-long beads usually sell for $40 to $100 (check "gallery" on www.glassbeads.com for samples and their availability).
With beads, you can personalize presents. "A handmade gift is special," says avid beader Mazer. "It often reflects the personalities both of giver and receiver." And try thinking outside the jewelry box. Beads might figure in collages, masks and holiday decorations, and on backpacks, shoes, hair ornaments, even cell phone covers.
There are alternatives to purchasing new beads, too. Mazer recommends trading beads with friends at a beading circle. Part-time designer Ngbokoto suggests recycling all those broken necklaces and mate-less earrings tucked away in drawers. Flea markets can be a great source of unusual beads as can your grandmother's attic.
And who can beat beading's big bonus? "It's so relaxing," says Mazer, who finds the colorful, tactile quality of beads and the repetitive nature of stringing particularly soothing. For Ngbokoto, "bead play" provides a creative respite from her busy job with an international association and the task of parenting four youngsters. "I like to get out my beads at night when everyone is asleep," she says with a laugh. Working with them is "very meditative."
AND THE BEAD GOES ON
Thanks to the Internet, the big world of beads can be easily navigated. You can get a gander at cool beads and creations, pick up tips and ideas, even ask for advice. Many designers and artists maintain their own Web sites or have a presence on community sites and online magazines such as the Bead Bugle (www.beadbugle.com). Local designer Geltman maintains the Web site www.bestbeadartists.org and its attendant blog of trade news to help "facilitate a community of beaders and bring more attention to wonderful work," she says.
With beads, you can go far in a few hours. "History, geography, beauty, culture -- it's all packed into a small bead," says Beadazzled's Diamanti. Yet this amazing package doesn't require much space, too many tools, a high level of skill or even much time to work with, she adds. The perfect winter hobby.
So go ahead, slip that first bead on a string. Become part of a great cross-cultural tradition linking past to present, extending into the future. To infinity . . . and bead-yond!
Children's author Mary Quattlebaum enjoys stringing beads with her family. She last wrote for Weekend about a Japanese exhibit for kids.
