Here’s how to turn beads into stunning art

I am beadmused after several eye-straining days of working with tiny bugles, rocailles, drops, size 11s and cubes that are fire-polished, silver-lined, aurora borealised or transparent in every imaginable color not found in the rainbow.

Sounds like Greek to you?

I am speaking the language of a beadaholic. There’s more of us across the world than you’d guess. We seek no cures, only more beads. Our mantra goes something like this: “I have all the beads I’ll ever need – says no beader EVER.”

Please don’t stop reading because you think you aren’t interested in the topic. Beads are as important in world history as anything else made by man. Yes, man. Bead artistry attracts all genders.

The earliest beads discovered by archaeologists date back 70,000 years in Tunisia and are fashioned from ostrich shells. Beads from 38,000 BC were discovered in France.

For thousands of years beads of bone, stone, teeth, coral, shells, wood, gems, seeds, metals and glass were traded as money. They were also among the first creations humans used for adornment and status.

Closer to home, Native Americans turned the tiny European glass beads they obtained through trading into intricate and colorful beadwork uniquely their own.

Surely you’ve heard the joke that Iberville, who in 1699 claimed the Mississippi Coast for France, gave the Biloxis and other tribes beads for this region’s first Mardi Gras observance. Did you know that the early carnival necklace throws really were made of small glass beads, not today’s cheap plastics.

Now, to my beading passion. I don’t get joy out of taking bigger beads, stringing them and calling them jewelry. Instead, I prefer creating things out of tiny round glass globules called “seed beads.” For an idea of what I work with, one teaspoon of size 11/0 seed beads is about 500 beads. “Tiny” is definitely appropriate.

Seed beads can be used to make sculptures, small baskets and other vessels, animal shapes, sun catchers, wall hangings, embroidery, ornaments and, most commonly, jewelry. The possibilities are limited only to imagination and skill level.

I’m what’s called an off-loom bead weaver, but make that a novice off-loom bead weaver because I have much more to learn. Off-loom beading stitches are numerous and have their own language, such as ladder, brick, herringbone, right-angle weave, square, spiral and peyote. Sizes can be confusing, with a 15/0 much smaller than an 8/0.

So what exactly is off-loom bead weaving? Simply, you create art with seed beads, a needle as thin as a sheet of paper and a durable thread. Personal requirements are tenacity, decent eye-sight (natural or enhanced), dexterous fingers, a basic understanding of the color wheel, a love of learning new intricate techniques and, most importantly, the patience of Job.

The bead project I’m most proud of is a seahorse whose shape is formed from hundreds of different sized seed beads, using several stitching techniques. I won’t lie. It took much concentration, rippings out and consultations with someone more experienced.

My most recent project, on the other hand, is a pandemic joke. I belong to a bead society that has an annual Bead Soup Challenge in which all members get an identical bag of beads.

This summer’s challenge is unusual because instead of beads of assorted sizes and colors, we received only 13 one-inch cobalt blue glass leaves. We can add anything from our own bead stashes but the end result must include the original 13.

I stared at those blue leaves for several months as the pandemic heated up. I knew I didn’t want to make jewelry but my imagination was furloughed. Then one morning as I walked past the kitchen counter my eyes radared on the bottle of hand sanitizer now ubiquitous to pandemic cleanliness. I decided the overworked bottle deserved a face-lift.

Easy peasy project! The hardest part was making the words, accomplished with tweezers and long, thin bugle beads. The end result is photographed here. But do you notice my mistake? Not until all was assembled did I realize my misspelling, “sanitzer.” No way will I redo it. It’s too good of a laugh.

Before I tackle column topics I often check this newspaper’s microfilm to see what might be written in the past. “Glass beads” got over 2,000 digital hits. I was shocked.

“The great and mysterious Goddess of Fashion has, for some reason best known to herself, decreed that beads should come into vogue again,” declared one 1901 Herald article.

Other early articles explain the history of beads, from Greek luck tokens to amazing Venetian bead-making technique. I found one from 1911 that recommended dental as a good beading thread. Fishermen take note: Many of today’s bead weavers prefer modern fishing line because it won’t fray or rot.

Although rarely talked or written about anymore – except among beadaholics – beading remains universally popular in Russia, Japan, Africa, France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, China, to name a few. It’s on-again, off-again in fickle America, a fact backed by a scarcity of specialized local bead shops.

If you think this can never be your thing, visit a bead shop anyway for a sensory overload similar to one experienced in an art museums. At the least, you’ll be amazed at the sheer numbers and kinds of beads. At the most, you might decide to sign up for a beading class. (Hint: I hear a shop that specializes in seed beads just reopened in Gulfport.)

Sadly, my original and plentiful glass bead stash washed out to sea in Hurricane Katrina. That combined with everyone’s closets-full of Mardi Gras beads that glittered the beach after the storm should be enough to keep trinket-loving mermaids in beads for several generations.

Didn’t I tell you beads pique the imagination?

Kat Bergeron, a veteran feature writer specializing in Gulf Coast history and sense of place, is retired from the Sun Herald. She writes the Mississippi Coast Chronicles column as a freelance correspondent. Reach her at BergeronKat@gmail.com or at Southern Possum Tales, P.O. Box 33, Barboursville, VA 22923.