When I was waiting to adopt my son a few years ago, my mom and aunt were in the middle of a beading frenzy as they had discovered the simple joy of going to a beading place and running their hands through the riches of little glass, gold, porcelain, silver, and stone nuggets.  Beading was all the rage then and beginning to show up in the mainstream craft and hobby stores.  They intertwined big silver beads with ruby-like stones and crosses–a la Madonna.  Tiger eye and black, crystal pink with layers of gold filler to make a luxurious, stretchy band, theme bracelets with every kind of charm you can imagine.  They were hooked–literally–churning out bracelet after bracelet and just giving them away to friends and giggly granddaughters.  Something about the variety of beads and choices for designs is exhilarating and captivates the beading beginner into thinking that many things are possible.

My own beading experience was inspired by this whoosh of activity and the energy and excitement I had found in new friends and our impending trip to China for the newest member of our family.  Unlike the more structured looks I was seeing in books, stores, and on the Web, I just bought tubes of every bead I liked and mixed them all together in a set of one-of-a-kind friendship bracelets for my fellow parents-to-be.  They all ended up with a similar look, but as a beginner, I made a common mistake of using the wrong kind of stretchy string and when my own bracelet started to fray after a few weeks I knew they wouldn’t last long.

But that wasn’t the important thing.  The energy in those first bracelets passed quickly to my friend Michele and then to my niece Amanda, who as novices like me took beading to a new level and on very different paths.  Both are artistic and destined to create for the rest of their lives, and both got the beading bug when they were expectant parents.  Maybe they had been looking at beads before, but I do know that once they had those first beads in hand, they took off with the same wild enthusiasm I had seen and experienced myself.  It’s as if the beads are made with just a little bit of catnip to drive us crazy and want more.  We just can’t stop!  And the beads just get prettier.

After the adoption calm set in, it was time to put some of this beading energy to good use, and the struggling China Orphan Relief Fund made a great cause.  Somewhere in conversations about lampwork Buddhas, pandas, jade, and character beads, Bracelets for China Charities began.  We had a ready-made venue at an annual Lunar New Year celebration, heavily attended by adoptive parents.

Though we did our fair share of runs to the local craft stores and swooped in for the bulk beads if any were going out of business, Michele and I both found our favorite beads from specialty bead dealers.  On a bead mission in Florida, she found delightful little clear beads with single Chinese characters in them, and knowing the adoptive parents would go nuts over them, scooped them up.  She became the queen of crackle and jade beads and soon passed the beading bug on to her sister-in-law, now a loyal follower in our need to bead.

I found my best beads in an antique house run by a crazy lady named Mary in my hometown.  Every visit to that place is a cultural experience – not only do you walk in to beads on the tables, hanging from the walls, on the floor, in cabinets, and in every kind of container you can imagine, Mary is there to narrate your visit with her hoarse, well-worn voice and stories as you spend what seems like hours wandering through beads, finding treasures for the treasures you will make with them.

The first year we offered bracelets for sale, we made the Orphan Relief Fund $300 richer.  Over four years we’ve doubled that number, adding a few new colors and styles each year, but the one thing we’ve noticed is that same wild twinkle in the eyes of customers who want to run their hands through the bracelets, try on as many as possible, admire, giggle, and marvel at the beads.  They know they are supporting a charity, but they also know they are supporting their own, inner charity by giving in to the beauty of the colors and the crackles.

If you’ve never beaded before, now is the time to start.  Here are some of our favorite beading links, and we couldn’t leave you without the chance to purchase one of our signature bracelets that started it all.  Oh, and we're also offering some adorable angel earrings that are sure to make you feel safer just because they are dangling with you.

Happy beading!

Suzanne Mabee