Beads, glorious beads

Here I am with my latest shiny obsession--1970s-era glass beads, crafted in India in the style of African trade beads. Two years ago, I bought 362 kilos of these beads or roughly 85K of them. My wife Edie, artist extraordinaire, taught me how to string them on copper wire, and how to bend that wire into elaborate twists, and I took it from there. I honestly can’t tell you how I decided to make my bead chains twenty feet long, or to combine colors the way I do, or how I pinpointed the perfect price for these Infinity Spirit Chains, as I call them: $0. A bargain! As soon as I finish one, I give it away. I lost count of how many I gave to first responders during the Covid-19 lockdown days. When I’m twisting beads and stringing wire, I lose track of time, in an undeniably restorative way.

In my opinion, these chains are things of beauty. That’s all they have to be.