Bead man
On The Street…Bead Man
Beadniks, on Main Street in Brattleboro is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Family owned and operated and voted one of Vermont’s top 10 shops, it’s more than just a bead shop; it’s a museum, a pop culture emporium, and a walk on the wild side. Retro toys, old-fashioned candy, postcards, gemstones and eclectic gifts await the curious.
On Friday, Oct. 5, Beadniks will be celebrating its 20th anniversary with live music, giveaways and lots of fun. We invited the owner, Brian Robertshaw, to tell us his story. Here it is:
In 1626, Manhattan was bought for $24.00 worth of beads…or so it is said. Who knows? Beads have been responsible for many spirited moments. Traded world wide, a handful of those little baubles could provoke the strangest of outcomes, changing lives, histories and landscapes in their travels, stringing their stories with the passing of years.
It was this idea, that a seemingly small, trite object could be responsible for such change that inspired me as a youngster to start collecting beads. It grew into what is now known as Beadniks, a retail shop specializing in all-things-beady and a whole lot more.
On the surface, the story is simple—a hobby grown into a passion, a passion grown into a way of making a living. It all started when I was a child and was inspired by my brother’s coin collecting. We compared and traded old coins for years. Then one day I got to a point in the coin book that didn’t have any U.S. coins. Talking to a local dealer, I discovered that before there were coins…there were beads. The idea seemed bizarre to me. How could it be that people valued little round things with holes in them?!
So I went on a quest of discovery and hopefully to find some of these allusive items in the process. Coming from a large family with lots of cousins who grew up in the 60’s made finding my first old beads easy. They called them “love” beads; others called them “hippie” beads, and intellects called them “African trade beads”. They weren’t really any of these. They were really Italian polychrome and millifure glass beads that were made in Murano during the years of European expansion (17-1800’s) and were a bartering tool. They were shipped around the world wherever trade commodities were to be found, or wherever the wind set the sails. Beads were a commodity, a global currency for nearly 10,000 years, made of silver, gold or glass, precious stone or bone, whatever was valued by a society.
Since early human existence, humankind has been shaping the elements and dawning its gems. Our Neanderthal ancestors were the first to treasure and adorn themselves with beads. Their lives were intertwined with the medallions they wore – a good hunt, a journey to lands far away, a special ephigy or memory chipped into a shape.
The further I dug, the more I realized that beads went beyond a commercial value, that they represented something verging on the spiritual, the magical, the unknown. They held meaning and value beyond finance – they were time capsules of all that mattered to those that adorned them.
Often in my shop, I am asked, “Are you the owner?” Actually I say…“It owns me.” Most of my life has been involved in collecting, trading, buying and selling these objects. Again, what’s the allure?
Well, it was the bead that gave me an answer. I grabbed my Webster’s dictionary and discovered that the word bead came from the ancient words bed and bidden, meaning “to pray.” Next, to my surprise, I found the word beads man, and the definition said “one who prays for another’s soul, especially one hired to do so.”
I’m not quite sure what it all means for me, but it gave me a few more pieces of the puzzle to play with. I guess it made the very act of buying and selling beads seem more than just a per functionary job.
The world of beads is amazing. Beads are pandemic and pulsing with stories. They represent political, social, religious, cultural and just plain crafty endeavors. Our forbearers may have had to brave wildcats for beads, but today it’s a little easier and a lot more fun.
