Eyeing the Mystery

I hope as bead and jewelry designers, you subscribe to newsletters created by your favorite vendors. Yes??? Good! I love the Fire Mountain Gems newsletters. They keep me up on trends, have patterns and ideas and sometimes are about the history of a particular bead or jewelry style.

Eye Bead by Holly's Folly

Their recent article on eye beads fascinated me. I admit, I've always had a fascination with them probably because my two closest friends are from  European cultures. I also live near a huge Armenian community - yet another culture that believes in the power of the protective eye.

I've had people / customers from our Western culture say to me point blank, "Eye beads are creepy."  I do my best to inform them of the history and the power that many cultures place on eye beads. From the belief that eye beads offer protection to the wearer... a steady, non-blinking source reflecting evil back on ill-wishers to the idea that you can deflect your own negativity by simply wearing an eye bead. These beads have been around for generations.

But what surprised me even more is the dots and bumps that are so common in glass beadmaking are also believed to add protection to the wearer. The implication is the dots confuse the evil and send it packing. And...dots really are just one more take on creating eyes.

Silvered glass dots focal by Gia Pet

I've heard different tales over the years as to the number of eyes that is desirable. A friend told me to never have two...that they cancel one another out. Yet the article pointed out that two eyes on a bead actually means protection for a love / marriage / relationship. 

The other magic number of eyes to wear is nine. But if your beadmaker is oh so talented with balancing lots of murini on a big bead... why stop there? Check out this 25 eye bead made my by friend Janel of Janel Dudley Beads (shop closed until she moves in April) 

I urge you to read the Fire Mountain Gems article to know more but I want to leave you with a question. This next photo is what is typically thought of as a common eye bead:

Made in China, most certainly not cleaned or annealed and available for around 50 cents. Please tell me, do you see the difference in of these mass made beads and the beads I and my fellow Fire Divas make?