Jewelry Making

I found some pretty cool looking beads the other day made by the Aleale Bead company. This Czech Republic based company is so named after the first three letters of the first names of the two founders: Alena Chládková and Alexander Chládek.

They make all different types of handmade glass beads but some of my favorites are their “animal” beads. I really like the style of these glass bead animals… they’re sort of playful and almost cartoon-like, but are also very dignified in their look.

The funny little Tomcat Bead that they make is a cat with an orange face and blue ears, but with a black and pistachio colored striped body. For some reason it reminds me of hieroglyphics, maybe in the way that it is standing up instead of a traditional pose. A very cute looking bead!

This other bead I chose to show is of a colorful Ladybug (known as ladybird in many other places. It has a red wings dotted with black like a normal ladybug, but to me it looks like the funny looking head is twisted around so that it’s looking back at you. The orange nose (is that a nose) was a nice little touch.

I don’t know too much about their style of beads but I believe that it is semi-influenced from the “Bohemian” style, which is so called because of its origins in the country(?) called Bohemia. Apparently, there was a vibrant glass bead making culture there for over 500 years which was interrupted during WWII. Here is a bit of info from Aleale’s site about their influences:

The art of glass beadmaking has been practiced for more than four thousand years. Our techniques of shaping each bead by hand are derived from methods started by the ancient Egyptians, and developed over many centuries by Phoenician, Roman, Venetian and Bohemian artists. Every generation of glass bead designers gives new expression to this ancient art.

I am actually not too sure if they sell these handcrafted beads and jewelry directly through their website… I believe I got to their site through a link from another bead distributor. In any case, if you’re interested in their beads you could probably contact them at the address on their site.

You can check out the Aleale Beads site at: www.aleale.cz/