BOOM IN BEADS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 147, 19 December 1930, Page 15

BOOM IN BEADS

WOMEN BEAD-STRINGERS

Beads, in glass, cliiaa, and wood, beads made of strange nuts and crystals, beads of mother-of-pearl, arid even of tiny Buddhas and foreign charms, are pouring into this country in a stream as wide as the Thames, states the 'Sunday Express." The reason is the fashionable ediot that every feminine ensemble yiust have beads to match. A million pounds worth of beads has already reached England from Gablonz, a small town in Czechoslovakia, alone. London stores have trebled their sales of beads in a few months. France, Italy, Germany, and China are sending travellers with now bead designs to London every day. And ■a. growing number of enterprising Englishwomen have profited by the fact that there is no bead manufactory in England, and aro enjoying a harvest from necklaces made at home. These home jewellery-makers have struck the right note in bead-making, and their individual products are sought by London buyers.

They "scour" antique shops for ideas in strange beads, and often obtain high prices for their finished neck lets. Earo pieces of amber, turquoise, and cornelia are mixed with nuts from the hedgerow and quaint foreign charms. Large, irregular pieces of coral make a popular choker, and among the rare and more costly beads, lapis lazuli, amethyst, and all shades of jade arc

to be found. Coral acorns, corozo nuts, and ivory combine in necklets made by the pioneers of a new industry—English women bead-stringers. SYNTHETIC CEYSTAL. Mr. Yates, a bead importer, of Fenchurch street, London, said to a "Sun day Express" representative that tho peasants outside Gablonz are supplied with glass in its rough state, and in their cottages they designed and blew beads, and take them on barrows to Gablonz, where they sold them to merchants by tho hundredweight. "These merchants," added Mr. Yates, "have exported about a million pounds worth of beads to England dur ing the last twelve mouths. England does not make beads, but a number of women are making money stringing foreign beads for our stores. They lead the world in artistic bead-string-ing, and produce necklets as beautiful as the products of the great fashion houses of Paris. Czeeho-Slovakia possesses a natural mineral water that will produce a synthetic rock-crystal almost equalling a diamond in brilliance. They have the monopoly of this new crystal, which costs a few pence to make there, and could not be produced anywhere else for thousands of pounds. It is largely used in tho new beads for the coming season. Tho most popular and striking bead-of the moment is the corozo nut, which comes from South America. It is carved and dyed, and varies in size from that of a pea to a particularly large walnut. Another new bead is from Italy. It is not dyed, but is made of stone mosaic. The cheapest beads are from Japan. Charms in ivory, jade, and rose-quartz are in demand for chokers. Copies of these charms, particularly Buddhas, are being made in glass."