An ode to a library – Prairie Edge bead library


So, walking up a flight of stairs at Prairie Edge in Rapid City, South Dakota, you see this:

Wait, what does that sign say?

Yup. This is exactly what it is. Check out these cabinets of beads, all amazing Italian beads, now no longer made.

Interested in blues and greens?

This one has that amazing Italian pink. And those blues! Lots of opal beads in this case.

How about an entire case of red whitehearts?

Prefer your reds without white hearts? Here you go!

These beads are also sold by Prairie Edge’s supply arm, Sioux Trading. If you look above, you see some of the glass jars have gold ribbon around the neck; those colors are no longer available for sale.

As you can just barely see in the first two pictures, there are also pieces of finished beadwork on display here, of all sorts:

The large case at the bottom front of the first picture is full of beads, and bead canes:

Are these gooseberry beads? I think they might be.

And finally, what the store downstairs looks like, Sioux Trading.

First, the modern Czech beads (this is one of two cabinets):

And finally, the Italian beads, which you see in quantity upstairs in the Bead Library:

I love this place!

 


3 responses to “An ode to a library – Prairie Edge bead library”

  1. I am glad to see all the hard work and enormous effort you put into preserving beads for future generations to see, far to many things are slipping away from this earth and it is my hope that beads and beading never be one of them and that older generations will not forget to pass down what they know to the much younger generation.

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