Here and in many other countries and continents, seed beads from the Crystal Valley are transformed into remarkable works of art, which incorporate a message, the culture of the given country or the artistry of individuals, in the hands of the members of traditional nations, professional designers and amateur admirers.

The team at Preciosa Ornela has created a printed six-page calendar, which will transport you into the environment of the six selected countries and acquaint you more closely with their typical seed bead products.

No matter whether this involves Malaysian slippers, a chief’s headband from a North American Indian tribe, a Russian kokoshnik, a typical Ukrainian necklace or traditional African women’s jewelry, Czech seed beads from the PRECIOSA Traditional Czech Beads™ brand always play an important role in the cultures of the individual nations.

We have selected a glistening seed bead handbag, a Charleston dress with tassels and costume jewelry accessories which were typical for the period of the First Republic to represent the Czech Republic.

Czech Republic | Zásada - the hometown of the Czech Seed Beads

Even though the Bohemian basin extends over an area approximately equivalent to that of one of the smaller states in the United States of America and its number of inhabitants could be compared to that of the major city which ranks 27th in the world, it can be said that its diversity, no matter whether from the point of view of its history, its music, its science, its sport, its geology or its weather which takes the form of all four season, is wide-ranging enough to account for several countries put together. Likewise, Czech seed beads with their current production brand of PRECIOSA Traditional Czech Beads™, which are unrivalled in the world from the point of view of their diversity, also have their roots deeply embedded in the one small place within the Czech Republic, namely the municipality of Zásada in North Bohemia.

At the beginning, there was one glassworks in the vicinity of Zásada. Thanks to the Syřišťov glassworks, farmers from the environs, and naturally also from Zásada, found more lucrative work for their horse-drawn wagons. Initially, they hired themselves out to the glassworks’ foreman as carters, but they later began to order, purchase and sell glass on their own behalf. They also purchased undecorated glass from other glassworks in the environs and had it cut, gilded, engraved or painted at their own expense. They would then sell it at markets and fairs, initially within the region, but later further afield, where they often supplemented the glass (mostly cheap carafes, glasses and goblets) with cut glass stones and seed beads.

In the 19th century, the trade in glass goods expanded to such an extent that the people of Zásada set out for exotic regions, from where they brought back luxury goods which they then sold at home. However, this livelihood did not have a definitive duration and it was initially replaced with small hand-cut glass seed beads with a small hole in the middle, which were gradually replaced with mechanical rough cut seed beads. So-called two cut beads and three cut beads also originated and, thanks to their variety and quality, began to dominate the world of fashion.

In addition to cut seed beads, round seed beads (the rocailles, which continue to be popular and highly sought after today) began to be made during the course of the 1880s. In Zásada and its environs, ladies’ and children’s handbags were embroidered using seed beads in many colors and various types of necklaces (a number of them with their own names), headbands, broaches and bracelets were 

made.The ladies’ handbags, which had become an integral clothing accessory, stood out at the beginning of the 20th century due to the distinctive ornateness given by the glass seed beads. A number of types of handbags found their way onto the market, including rectangular bags with a metal frame (fastening) or, on the contrary, pouches closed with a decorative drawstring. This handwork remained the domain of housewives long into the 20th century.

Successes were followed by falls in demand for goods from Zásada, albeit that the interest in this article was so great in the 1920s that all kinds of people in Zásada hung up their original professions and dedicated themselves to working with glass, including, for example, the finishing of seed beads, stringing and making costume jewelry or sales. Work continued late into the night in every house. At that time, Zásada was known as Little Paris.

The production of seed bead Christmas ornaments became typical for Zásada in the interwar period. Manufacturers of handbags and costume jewelry made from wooden beads also prospered.

A sequence of events in the 1950s led to the automation of the production of Zásada’s seed bead production and the significant expansion of the product range. There was enormous interest abroad in strung seed beads. Costume jewelry made from Czech seed beads maintained its name abroad and unique sets were designed for the individual markets according to the customers’ wishes.

Of the more than one hundred and twenty shapes of beads, rocailles, which have ruled the entire world for several centuries in embroidery and costume jewelry design in particular, are undoubtedly still the most popular type of seed bead.

The aforementioned exceptional breadth of the seed bead range from the PRECIOSA Traditional Czech Beads™ brand has made Preciosa the number one company in the market for its range of costume jewelry components. Customers can choose from a range of 16,460 color variants with the option of applying 2,078 lustres and other surface finishes. Every year, up to 4 thousand tons of these small glass miracles are transported from Zásada to more than 70 countries around the world every year.

Source: Nový Petr, Krupková Eva, Fendrichová Kristýna, Zásadský ráj – The story of Czech seed beads, Zásada 2018

Czech Seed Beads in Russia
The use of Czech seed beads, especially rocailles, in Russia has a long history which cannot be overlooked. At the same time, we are also pleased by the fact that glass seed beads are also currently very popular due to their wide range of possible decorative uses. Let us therefore take a look at the history of their use, which we can be divided into three stages.

From the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century

The beginnings of the use of rocailles in Russia can be traced from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Rocailles came in for special attention in the first half of the 19th century. This material was used to adorn the interiors of palaces, landowners’ houses, national folk costumes, but also items of personal use.

During this period, many new techniques arose for working with rocailles and the original procedures were modified. Whereas threads strung with single-color seed beads were freely dispersed about the decorated garments in the mid-18th century, rows of multi-colored seed beads were being sewn next to one another onto the base fabric in order to create a motif or picture by the 19th century.

The cloth decorated with rocailles was created using needles and hooks which were used to weave the individual beads into the fabric in the order and in the colors in which they had been pre-strung. Unlike embroidery using individual beads, this technique was faster, while the resulting picture depended on the color and shape of the seed beads which had been strung one after the other. The result was the wide use of this technique when decorating items of daily use, such as umbrella cases, purses, covers for books, albums and notebooks, card cases, snuff boxes and so on. Wall motifs (icons, genre pictures and tapestries) were also embroidered.

The turn of the 19th and 20th centuries

The “seed bead fever” began to gradually spread from the main centres in the empire to the provincial areas, smaller towns and lower layers of society from the mid-19th century. Moreover, the fashion of shirts with a deep neckline came to Russia from the west. Rocailles subsequently began to be used to adorn regular clothing and headwear, not only for traditional folk costumes.

Another use for our seed beads was found in the area of the church. In addition to the embroidery of icons, they were also used in the sewing of orthodox robes or to highlight religious texts and inscriptions by means of “framing” with seed beads or with ornamental decorations.

Rocaille embroidery also spread to the northern areas beyond the Arctic Circle, to Siberia and to the Far East. The techniques and motifs were, of course, different to those of the traditional Russian school. The base material also differed, as cloth was replaced with leather and other natural materials.

During the period of the art nouveau, a change occurred in the materials and the methods of sewing. Whereas traditional folk costumes made of heavy and stiff fabrics (brocade), were embroidered with seed beads and beads of larger diameters and in contrasting colors, the art nouveau brought with it a change in favour of the decoration of delicate fabric (tulle) using seed beads of a very small diameter, which were used to create unique motifs. The composition was often supplemented with glass bugles, shiny glints and beads. The color composition mainly involved more subdued tones and delicate transitions which once again contrasted with the traditional color composition of the national folk costumes.

The present

Even in the present, Russia continues to use predominantly Czech rocailles, which have a wide range of uses. The ways they are used are based on the historical contexts. This therefore involves the embroidering and individualisation of clothing, fashion accessories, footwear, residential interiors and the production of costume jewelry and artificial flowers.

Huichol ornaments made from Czech seed beads
If you hear the expression or name “Huichol” in connection with Mexico, then you should know that this involves the members of an ethnic Indian minority. They are estimated to number 25 thousand members, which is admittedly but a “drop in the ocean” among the more than one hundred million inhabitants of Mexico, but for all that they are one of the most significant consumers and users of Czech seed beads in the country. 

The majority of Huichol communities live in the Mexican states of Jalisco and Nayarit, but partially also in Durango and Zacatecas, which are located in the central area of Mexico, to the north-west of the capital city, Distrito Federal. The Huichols have preserved their traditions, which include their traditional clothing. For men, this involves white trousers and a white shirt, albeit richly embroidered and decorated. If you encounter the Huichol more frequently, your attention will also be drawn to the fact that they are always able to keep their predominantly white clothing snow white and exceptionally clean.

So-called Huichol Art is becoming increasing well-known. In addition to very beautiful, richly embroidered fabrics, this especially involves wonderful colorful pictures which are created using colorful yarns. These yarns are affixed to a base board using beeswax and resin, onto which they are pressed and adhered.

The items decorated exclusively with Czech seed beads, which are all in a single size (so-called 11/0) which has become sought after by the Huichol, strung on a thread are very beautiful. The Huichol mainly purchase opaque colors in the entire color range which only one Czech producer is able to supply (almost 40 shades). And it is necessary to add without any hyperbole that only one producer in the world is able to satisfy the needs of the Huichol as far as the quality of the seed beads, their regularity of size and shape and the perfect alignment of their holes is concerned.

They decorate all of their items one seed bead at a time. The base usually consists of wooden or sometimes ceramic objects of various sizes. This usually involves all possible types of animals, including snakes, puma’s heads, dolphins, frogs, tortoises and so on, but also various decorative boxes, cases and so on, onto which the Huichol apply a layer of beeswax and then adhere the individual seed beads to it in order to create a relatively complicated picture, in which the colors transition from lighter to darker shades and back again. All of this is done without any sketches; it is all from memory. It is said that they have wonderful imaginations and, of course, they must also be blessed with enormous patience. A number of pictures are also of mystical significance. The sizes of the individual items range from the very tiny of just a few centimetres high through to large, life-size pieces depicting rhinoceroses, for example, or a three-metre high elephant.

However, the Huichol do not only use Czech seed beads for the decoration of the aforementioned items, but also to make wonderful costume jewelry ranging from bracelets through to extraordinary, delicate earrings.

The Huichol sell most of their handmade items (so-called “artisania”) for export, mostly to the USA and Canada and Arab countries, but part of their production is understandably also offered for sale directly in Mexico to the large numbers of tourists who come from all over the world.

It is highly agreeable that the activities of the Huichol ethnic group are supported by the Mexican local governments, especially by the government of the state of Jalisco, which has established its own “Instituto de la Artesanía Jalisciense” to this end.

Apart from the use as a part of their clothing or jewellery, the beads are also used when making charms to banish evil, during healing or as sacrificial items. In the last decades, beads have also served the inhabitants as a source of income as they make hand-made beadwork and sell it to tourists.

The beads were either made of locally available materials or the glass ones came to Sub-Saharan Africa as finished products via ancient trade routes, mainly from Europe and Asia. The Czech glass beads started to find their way to these places in the 19th century with the development of the European seafaring. Their fancy colors charmed the tribesmen so much that Sub-Saharan Africa has been one of the largest customers of PRECIOSA Traditional Czech Beads™ since then

Nyonya beadwork
In the context of the long-established traditions of textile creation in Southeast Asia, Nyonya beadwork can be seen as a relatively recent phenomenon, with a significant history that appears to reach back not more than 160 years or so. Yet, in the course of its comparatively short life, Nyonya beadwork has come to play an important role in the cultural imaginary of the Peranakan Chinese, the acculturated descendants of Chinese migrants to the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian archipelago.

The Peranakan Chinese retained many of their forefathers´ Chinese customs and beliefs. At the same time, through intermarriage and interaction with indigenous communities, they acquired mode of speech, cuisine, dress, and customs that reflected their adoption and adaptation of Malay and other indigenous Indonesian ways of life. Peranakan Chinese were largely concentrated in urban centres – Penang, Melaka, and Singapore as the flourishing historical trading centres, attracting Chinese merchant and artisans from the fifteenth century onwards.

Beadwork is an important aspect of Peranakan material culture. The start of Nyonya beadwork was between 1830 and 1920, which coincides with the golden age of Peranakan Chinese society. Beadwork and embroidery were (and to a large extent, still are) gendered activities. Nevertheless, beaded and embroidered objects touched the lives of those who used, presented, received, displayed, and viewed them. Beadwork was seen by men and women, young and old. Having been crafted at different points in time, Nyonya beadwork provides snapshots of the changes in society and culture as the ideas, attitudes, and aspirations of the producers and consumers of beadwork were distilled into these intricately worked items.

The Nyonya are the womenfolk of the Peranakan Chinese community. Many were taught from a young age to sew: beadwork and embroidery formed and important, albeit not always essential, part of their set of skills. Colorful beaded and embroidered slippers, wallets, purses, belts, children’s shoes and other accessories were either the product of Nyonyan workmanship or were purchased for use by the Peranakan Chinese community.

Beadwork techniques were varied and included loom-weaving with beads, bead crochet and knitting, couching, and beading over a mould. Nyonya beadwork employed mainly rocailles and charlottes, often together on the same piece.

Small glass seed beads measuring less than 2 or 3 millimeters in diameter must have been amongst the European bead exports to Southeast Asia for these are found in abundance in beadwork from the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, and other islands of the Indonesian archipelago. Initially dominated by Venice, seed bead production also spread to Bohemia.

Contemporary beadwork activity and cultural expression

Even whilst Nyonya beadwork has come to function as a cultural icon and a signifier of Peranakan heritage, as a contemporary activity, beading has taken on new social roles. Beadwork projects have been harnessed as a force for social empowerment and change.

Many people have taken up beadwork because of their interest in craft whilst some learn it because commercially made beaded footwear is too expensive, not available. At the same time, beadwork lessons and demonstrations have become part of the process through which intangible Peranakan cultural heritage is commodified in search of commercial gains. The increasing number of classes in Nyonya beadwork, which are advertised in the tourism brochure in Singapore and Malaysia in last few years, can also be taken as an indication of its newfound popularity as a leisure activity.

Beadwork practice is opportunistically promoted and legitimized as the transmission of heritage art in danger of demise. The Peranakan Association of Penang, in conjunction with the Penang State Government, advertised beadwork and embroidery classes to revive Penang´s Nyonya crafts.

Source: Cheah, Hwei-Fe’n, Phoenix rising: narratives in Nyonya beadwork from the Straits Settlements, Singapore 2010
VIDEO: Nyonya Beadwork - Interview with Raymond Wong

https://www.peranakanmuseum.org.sg/