Beading thoughts that keep us up at night!

The Art of Beading

The human tendency to enhance our beauty with jewelry is as old as humanity itself. Every ancient tribe embellished the practical objects of everyday use with artistic expressions unique to their culture.

Beadwork is a traditional art form embedded in the culture of the Native American people long before Europeans set foot on the continent. They painstakingly made beads out of locally available materials such as bones, sea shells, turquoise stones, wood and hard seeds like Job’s tears and mountain laurel. In the absence of effective cutting and polishing tools, the beads were large and coarse, but they were extensively used as personal jewelry, as well as for decorating their clothes, shoes, houses and horses.

Jewelry and embroidery using dyed porcupine quills was another example of the ingenuity of the American natives. Each tribe had a particular style that set them apart from other tribes. They believed that artistic designs were a gift they received from spirits through dreams, and unwritten copyrights controlled their use!

The arrival of European settlers in the North American continent marked a new phase in the art of beading. Glass beads from Europe became the new rage in beadwork, even though many Indian tribes kept alive their ancient craft with traditional materials. The new beads were called trade beads or pony beads as they were traded by men on pony trains. Soon these tiny seed beads found a place in every conceivable item of daily use.

Fine quality glass beads are thought to have come from Venice. Bead making was a flourishing industry in Italy even in the 14^th century. It later spread to other European countries including France and England. European colonization soon brought it to other continents and distant shores. The colors originally available to the Indian Americans were limited to blue, white and dull red; hence they became the typical colors of traditional beadwork.

Different techniques were used in bead work on clothing.

·         Overlaid Stitch – Also called spot stitch, it was used to cover large areas and curvilinear patterns preferred by the woodland tribes of the east. Strings of beads are laid over the pattern, and then attached to the clothing by overlaying stitches.

·         Lazy Stitch – A few beads are taken on the needle at a time and stitched down in rows. Ideal for the geometrical designs of the western tribes of the Plains.

·         Couching Stitch – A variation of lazy stitch popular in the northwest. A raised effect is accomplished by taking more beads in the needle than necessary to cover the length of the stitch.

·         Weaving – Beads were woven into the clothing with the help of looms or even without them.

Beadwork is still regarded a symbol of American ethnicity. Their extensive use by Powwow dancers stands testimony to this. However, there has been a shift in styles over time. For everyday use, bead jewelry is comparatively more in demand than bead-embellished clothing. If dried sinews of animals were used to thread the beads in olden days, it has been replaced by cotton, silk, and nylon threads. Non-traditional colors and contemporary designs are widely employed.

JAPANESE TOHO SEED BEADS

 

Venetian beads are still available, but the finest quality beads come from Japan, and cheaper ones from China and India. Czech beads are also cheap, and have a large size range. In seed beads, the higher number indicates smaller size. 6/o to 11/o are common sizes, but the smallest is 22/o. They come in various finishes such as opaque, transparent, matte, luster, metallic, pearl, rainbow etc. Shapes also vary. Some of them are:

·         Rocailles – round beads

·         Charlotte – one surface cut to form a facet

·         Hex cut – six facets cut to for a hexagonal shape

·         Drop – tear-drop shape

·         Bugle – thin tubes

·         Cube – square-shaped

·         Farfalle – Double teardrop

The sheer beauty of this art form has such an aesthetic appeal that beadwork has been embraced by people of every race and rank. Necklaces, bracelets and earrings fashioned out of a variety of beads are in vogue, not just because they are affordable. Their versatility with respect to color, texture and design possibilities suit the modem lifestyle. New concepts and patterns are being continuously explored. Fusion with various knotting and weaving techniques of different cultures has resulted in exquisite bead jewelry that can compete with any precious jewelry.