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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: Run into boat sailors anywhere
I was attending the local Bead Bazaar to top off my collection of beads I must own for no other reason than to own them and ran into a guy from Silverdale who was on Darter and the Henry. He saw my Flasher hat and said, "Nice hat!" I asked him if he was boat sailor and it went from there. He is a member of Bremerton Base. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1455
| Subject: RE: Run into boat sailors anywhere
Being an ex Pat Henry sailor, did you happen to get his name? You collect beads? I must say you are a man with many facets. |
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Run into boat sailors anywhere
I do collect beads. I was in the bead business for about 10 years. We made jewelry and in the course of that started looking for cheaper sources of raw materials. We began importing from India and reselling. The lowly bead is part of a Billion dollar industry world wide. Japan prevents the export of modern machinery that manufactures the tiny seed bead because is considered too vital to the economy. China is working hard to corner the market once held by India in the manufacture and exporting of beads.
The often sneered at bead has been in continual use by man for 100,000 years and is used to date ancient and not so ancient archeological sites the world over.... and they can be just pretty. I know a few of the worlds top bead artists whose craft can command them up to $3500.00 a bead!!! ...but $35.00 a bead is not at all unusual. I bought 2 beads yesterday and spent $35.00 for the two of them.
I have beads in my collection that are up to 1200 years old and some that are worth $500.00 a piece. (I had some 4000 year old beads but they fell off my neck and were lost but they had only been rediscovered a few years before they became lost again.)
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 2672
Location: New Jersey | Subject: RE: Run into boat sailors anywhere
THAT and coconut shells and grass skirts....Geez Ric, have you no collections that can be shown with interest at a Subvets convention?
Coconut bras and skirts are one thing if they come from girls that own them...but...Ask Dave what happens to guys who wear & own those items of clothing... |
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Old Salt
Posts: 419
Location: Anchorage, Alaska | Subject: RE: Run into boat sailors anywhere
Ric - 2009-09-13 5:50 AM Japan prevents the export of modern machinery that manufactures the tiny seed bead because is considered too vital to the economy.
Too bad they didn't feel the same way when Toshiba sold our propeller machining secrets.
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 561
| Subject: RE: Run into boat sailors anywhere
When I left the Navy in 1967 and returned to my family's home in the San Francisco Bay area I became a hippie bead stringer of sorts. We moved to rural Northern Caifornia to work then attend the local JC on the GI Bill. All the while I loved stringing beads and making dangly ear rings which I seemed to give away rather than sell. I also got into candle making. I was in an auto accident where I ended up spending 60 days in traction then 4 months in a body cast and used bead stringing to pass the time. I gave just about every nurse in the hospital some of my creations and even had them coming in to ask for certain color variations to go with different outfits. It was a great hobby except when those little seed buggers got lost under you in the bed, they then seemed to be huge as they irritated your butt until you found them.LOL
I also have some California Indian seed bead work that was given to my grandmother in about 1898 by members of the Maidu tribe of North Eastern California. I have a lot of beads that were dug from old Indian village sites. They range from hand made shell and bone to glass from Europe and Russia. The Russian fur traders brought a lot down the Pacific coast while the French and English fur traders brought a lot in from the east. A nice blend of history.
As a bead stringer you tend to accumulate a large supply of different beads to use eventually. I recently gave most of mine to my daughters and grand kids and they are into it now.
Great hobby,
T.Spoon, DBF |
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Run into boat sailors anywhere
If some of those looked like this they are called "Russian Blues" though they come from Venice and were traded into Alaska and worked down the coast from there. They are quite valuable.
Lewis and Clark about starved to death because they had the wrong color beads to trade with the locals in the west.
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: Sure do....
http://www.pigboats.com/subs/legends.html |
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 561
| Subject: RE: Run into boat sailors anywhere
Yes, Ric I do have a few of the "Russian Blues" on some strings I picked up at a bottle show a few years back. They are very used but still clear. I did not know their history, Thanks. Also interesting note on the Lewis and Clarke shafu.
T.spoon, DBF |
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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: RE: Run into boat sailors anywhere
Denisse and I had a string of cobalt blue glass beads that were made in China that were traded in the NW and ended up with the Yakima tribe in central Washington. Beautiful stuff. NW natives wanted blue not yellow or green or white or red beads. Lewis & Clark ate pretty good until crossing the Rockies trading the beads they brought with them. |
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Run into boat sailors anywhere
