Rosary Workshop - Handmade Beads - Tucson Bead Show
OLD PICASSO BEADS
BEAUCOUP CONGE of TUCSON
~ how picasso beads are made ~
Tomas explained, ‘The picasso finish beads were pressed into the shapes, then fire polished, which is to subject them to high heat for a short time to melt just the very outer layer of glass to make them smooth, or polished. Then they were subjected to various heated gasses from metals to get the coatings, which are on the beads. I don't know why they are called picasso.' Thse are from Austria and are pre war - 1940.

the story about finding the picasso beads
We bought a fairly large lot (several hundred pounds) of beads based on a few samples and verbal descriptions. The beads weren't going to be especially - terrible or wonderful either - was our expectation ... When David was going thru the boxes he found about what was expected until he came upon the boxes with the picasso beads. Box after box of beautiful and wonderful 1940's picasso beads in all kinds of shapes and colors. For us, it was a fantastic find in what otherwise was just a pretty normal lot of older beads.

THESE PICASSO BEADS ARE FROM AUSTRIA (1940)

~ a community of workers ~
I think I mentioned that all the beads came to us unstrung, and that we use a local Tucson company who employs handicapped individuals to do the stranding. They do all of our stranding, and they also perform other repetitive jobs such as filling tubes with seed beads. Most of the jobs they do delight them because they get to see and handle the many colors and textures of the beads. And, most of the jobs they do are jobs which none of our employees enjoy because they are repetetive and boring. There aren't too many situations where everyone truly wins, but this sure is one for us and the Handlers of Tucson.

 
ABOUT PRESSED BEADS