HIppie Beads or “What I did this Summer”

Hippie Beads
When I was a child during the sixties, everyone was into love beads. The ‘hippies’ wore strings of them around their necks, woven through their hair, sewn onto their clothes. They were tiny little seed beads that came in a riot of colors and I adored them. Back then they came in these little test tubes for a dollar. You could get color mixes, or solid colors and mix/match them yourself. My mom would buy the tubes for me and I would happily sit stringing them on sew thread. When I was a kid I was doing simple stringing, but I would look at the more intricate designs and I wanted so bad to be able to do them. I would sit with my thread and needles and try to follow the instructions that came with the tubes, but would always end up with knots. I would give up and go back to my simple stringing. I guess you could say this was my first exposure to jewelry making; I was about 9 or 10 years old.srt-studio.com

Eventually the fad faded, as many fads of that time did.
Over the years I’ve played around with jewelry making but never really got serious about it until two years ago. I’ve worked with crystals, large glass beads, natural stones and crystals, but my eye was always on those ‘hippie beads’. Every trip to the craft store, every time I browse through online stores, I look at those seed beads and long to ‘play’ with them again. Last month I decided to take the plunge.
I had been looking for inspiration on YouTube and came across tutorial videos that demonstrated more elaborate beading techniques. I started out with a few videos that showed how to string crystals in really pretty designs and I was happy with that; then I came across a tutorial on Peyote Stitch. I sat and watched that first video two or three times, then pulled out some seed beads and started ‘playing’. Once again I was hooked on ‘hippie beads’.
I’m still in the learning phase right now, so I have nothing to offer for sale yet. In the process of learning I’ve always discovered that I have no patience for the pretty little size 10 or 11 beads. I have fallen in love with the larger 6.0 and 2.0 beads though. Not only are they great for larger Peyote cuffs, but they work really well with memory wire.
So, everything old is new again. The pretty little ‘hippie beads’ I started out with as a child, have attracted me again.

Written by Bluerosedreamer

Tags: beaded jewelry, beading, blue roses, handmadeartists, hippie beads, hippies, janis joplin, jewelry design, love beads, memory wire, peyote, seed beads, sixties

Posted in Handmade