The New Bohemian Beads

About a hundred kilometers north of Prague, in the Czech Republic, is an area of particular natural beauty. Its hills and mountains are covered in farms and forests. Historic towns, both large and small, are filled with reminders of an industrious and prosperous past.

This part of Bohemia is home to many crafts and skilled occupations the most famous of which is the art of glass work. Since the sixteenth century, the glass makers have used the fuel of the surrounding forests to turn simple sand and oxides into one of man's most magical materials. Local artists and artisans have fashioned this fine quality glass into exquisite objects, both practical and decorative, and passed their growing skills down through the generations.

Bohemian glass became famous throughout the world and, by the 17^th century it was competing with the finest products from the other great glass-making centers. The techniques of glass bead making, learned from Venice, led to a flourishing cottage industry which grew to huge proportions by the beginning of the last century. Famous Czech designers of the first half of the twentieth century helped to give the region a leading role in glass and bead design. Sadly, the Second World War brought great tragedy to the region and was followed by forty years of creative stagnation under an imposed communist regime.

Beadworks has been buying beads from Bohemia for a quarter of a century. Happily, the classic styles of pressed glass and lamp glass beads, which had served the region so well for decades, retained their appeal for contemporary customers. But it was only after the fall of communism that a reinvigorated sense of design and entrepreneurial spirit crept back into the hearts of a new generation. It is this revival of innovation, particularly in lamp glass work, which has made Bohemian beads one of the most exciting parts of the Beadworks range.

During one of our annual trips to Bohemia, we were fortunate enough to stumble across the most talented of these new generation designers.
Alena and Alex Chladek met at the famous Glass School in Zelezny Brod, a small town on the banks of the Jizera River. After her studies, Alena's creativity was, for a while, hidden in one of the large, communist era glass workshops. But, from the first time we set eyes upon an early design of Alena's glass beads, we knew that we had found an original talent. No one was using color in such a joyful manner. Her beads perfectly expressed a spirit of youthful optimism which had become such a key feature of contemporary tastes in jewelry design.

With help from Beadworks, Alena and Alex were able to set up their own production facility. Alex, a fine designer and artist himself, created other sculptural components which she translated into enchanting beads. Their partnership, now formally named AleAle T designs, draws on a combination of their design talents and the unique skills of the glass artisans in the region of the Jizera mountains.

Working with an exclusive distribution agreement from Beadworks, AleAle has been able to design a phenomenal number of new beads. Beadworks' founder and chief buyer, Nancy Wall, uses her encyclopedic knowledge of beads from around the world and her touch for discerning contemporary trends in jewelry, to advise on and to nurture new designs from the AleAle studios. Together, this cooperation has created a renaissance of creativity in Bohemian lamp glass bead design.

Today, Alena and Alex have added a baby daughter to the family and live in a picturesque cottage a few steps from their production workshops. They continue to cooperate with Beadworks on new design and the marketing of the AleAle brand in North America, Europe and Japan. AleAle's creative ideas and the work of its fine artisans continue to serve the inspiration of modern fashion designers. We at Beadworks are proud to play a supporting role in the creation and distribution of these fine new designs - another step in the long history of Bohemian glass beadmaking.