SPOTLIGHT ON ... STORE
August 2008
Our featured bead store this month is San Francisco Arts & Crafts
Back in the heady old days of 1974, Kelly began the only job she ever felt was temporary, selling beads on the street at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco as a street artist. She thought "How could one possibly make a living selling beads?" Thinking it would be a temporary stop on the way to a career.
Puka shells were the rage of the day! Heishi shells any one? Liquid silver? Careful if you know what any of those items are you're dating yourself!
Kelly did bead work and also learned to make fabricated metal jewelry in silver and brass that she often embellished with beads.
Nine years later in 1983 she met Peter, who at the time was back to doing the leather work he did between his world trips. Together they made numerous trips to the Far East buying gems, jewelry and of course beads. The trips to Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, The Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India gave them an extensive knowledge base of other cultures. It also gave them an inside look at the workings of the trade from a different point of view.
On the home front they gradually moved from being San Francisco street artists to doing craft shows and having reps sell their handcrafted jewelry nationally. Along the way they began to accumulate lots of extra materials and started doing bead shows and bazaars to sell their overstock beads. The evolution continued, eventually they gave up making finished jewelry and hit the road doing shows all over the country.
Their specialty was Czech glass beads. Peter made several trips to the Czech Republic and established good working connections.
Over thirty years have flown by and the evolution continues ... It's was time to make another change, to reinvent again, to shake off structural prejudice ... and go brick and mortar!
Although they still do select trade shows, they can now be found at their new store at 546 Broadway, in Sonoma, CA. The store carries an extensive line of quality Czech glass in the form of Seed Beads, Pressed Glass, Fire Polished glass and vintage glass from around the world. They have added stone beads, pearls, findings and stringing supplies to the mix.
Kelly's so inspired she's designing exclusive designs for the store and classes!
San Francisco Arts & Crafts
546 Broadway
Sonoma, CA 95476
www.sanfranciscoartscrafts.com
email: info@sanfranciscoartscrafts.com
tel (707) 996-BEAD (2323)
Find a bead store near you! 
