It's been a long, long time since I've posted a rant or rave. And this one, alas, is too late.

In May of this year, I traveled to Wisconsin to see a cousin married. One of the many touches I appreciated from my cousin and her family was to make the church and hotel walking distance apart; and on my way back from the church (perhaps some sort of pre-wedding celebration—this was also a family reunion of sorts) I literally walked by a bead store.

Well, naturally, I had to check it out. It was a relatively new shop that had just opened. I'm pretty sure I spoke to one of the owners—in any event, the gentleman was most helpful. I had to make a lot of stockings and so was getting interested bugle beads again, particularly ones with rounded ends. Well, these weren't quite as smooth as some I managed to acquire somewhere-or-other, but they'd definitely been rounded off from the razor sharpness that characterized this sort of bead in my childhood. And, they were plain, not silver lined (and thus couldn't tarnish). Plus of course being of even size, with straight ends, that laid well on the string—good quality.

They were a very reasonable price—$3.50/hank. Originally I think I picked out 3 or 4 colors, because I was feeling broke and didn't really need any more beads, but I figured my chances of getting back to the store were nil (though my aunt kindly offered to stop in and pick up anything I needed) and so I splurged and got some more—I think the only color I passed on was orange.

I liked the packaging of these beads, though I thought it made for a lot more work than the traditional method of tying off the hanks, which pretty much all independent retail bead stores use. I loved that they listed the country of origin, exact color name and code on the back. That sort of openness is almost unheard of. The clerk (or owner) packed my relatively measly $30 odd purchase in a handled bag with some green tissue, and I saved all that until this morning because I really liked the store and wanted to do a post about them—I figured they could use the boost.

For one thing, as much as I loved the handsome, modern logo (anything with leaves is likely to win my approval), the gift-shop style packaging, not to mention the very reasonable prices, I wondered if they would make it.^[1] (They didn't even charge extra for the AB coated ones.) I do remember mentioning what I thought were the necessities for retail-bead shop survival—I would say number one is having a continuing and full roster of classes to attract customers and give them a reason to keep buying beads.

But of course, I was busy, and so it wasn't until I was racking my brains for something to write about (a lot of the stuff I'm working on now is in the pipeline, so I'm not ready to show it yet) that I finally decided to photograph these beads—besides which, it'll soon be stocking time again, and I wanted the beads to use! (Yes, they really sat in my basement for the last 7 months—as I said, I didn't need beads, I just wanted beads.)

Alas, Modern Bead went out of business nearly three months ago (the page, as of today, announces the store closing of September 2nd. ) I can't say I'm altogether surprised, but I'm bummed, because they were a nice shop, with very friendly service, a good product, and an underlying philosophy (documentation and openness) that I deeply appreciate.

—Perhaps some day they'll find a viable way to sell beads, and if so, I'd be happy to buy from them again. Beads purchased in May 08, photograph, file 25nov08.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.

Sylvus Tarn