Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1895-08-23

HOW BEADS ARE MADE.


One of the Oldest and Most Interesting
of the Minor Arts.
Half dozen years ago, many pom
derous dame rode out in her carriage
with thousands of black and white
beads Topped and tasseled upon her
dress. There were pendants of beads
on her hat; beads dangled from her
parasol and her shopping bag tinkled
with beads. Children in school wore
them as Observation-Disclosures, brace
lets and rings OF score of different
colors.
To-day their use in the United States
has largely gone out of fashion, ex-
cept within certain narrow limits, and
the manufacture of them, still great
industry, depends for its support main
ly upon South America, Africa and the
islands of the sea. In those countries
beads have been worn for hundreds of
years, and fashion has little influence
upon their use. Indeed, if explorers
are to be believed, many a black saw
age is clad in a.necklaCe of beads and,
very little else.
Chinese are the Oldest bead makers
in the world. They have made beads
so long that even their historians do
not mention time when the industry
was not ancient. And the Chinese to-
day do the work just as their forefath-
ers did, and the styles are exactly the
same.
After the Chinese no people are SO
expert as the Venetians. AT present
there are more than 1000 workmen in
the island of Murano alone who are en-
gagged in bead making. The few man
ufacturers in other parts Of the world
have all learned the secret of the craft
in Venice.
For bead making there must be a
rope walk connected with the glass
factory. A rope walk is a narrow,
straight gallery about $50 feet long,
and SO situated that the middle is not
very far from the furnaces in which
the glass is melted. The first process
is the making of ordinary tubes like
those used in every drug store. Two
brawny workmen, with bare, brown
arms, seize huge wedge of the met
al" as the molten glass is called, be-
tween their blow pipes, and after it
has been blown hollow they gradually
stretch it out into long, swinging
rope.
When it has been reduced to the
proper size for the beads about to be
made, it is laid away to cool, after
which workman comes along and in
wonderfully deft manner chips it in
to fragments of uniform size. Often
for small beads these are not much
larger than grain of wheat, bat SC
carefully is the work done that the
little cylinders are rarely cracked OF
spoiled.
The pieces are now picked up BY
boys and placed in tub with sand and
ashes and stirred up carefully. In this
way the holes in the embryo beads are
stuffed full, thus preventing the dan
ger of the sides fattening together
when heat is applied. They are mex
placed in skillet-just such one al
the housewife uses in frying eggs-anC
stirred over very hot fire until thu
ragged edges where the pieces wer'
broken from the tube are rounded
giving the bead globular form. A
soon as they are cool the ashes ant
sand are shaken out Of them in a sieve
and then they are separated accord
, ing to size by other sleeves. They ar
! taken next to a long table, aroun'
7 which whole flock of boys and girl
are sitting. If the glass is colored, a
, it often is, the piles of beads on tn
table suggests a rainbow, with ever.
hue, from jet black, through red
green, yellow and blue up TO white.
! Each child has needle and thread
, and by long practice the beads ar
7 placed on strings with almost incor
). ceivable swiftness. And the childre
4 keep an exact count, too, SO that tn
; manufacturer knows just how man
! beads he is sending out. The thread
are tied into bundles and shipped to a
4 most every port where vessel touches
d Chicago Record.