Jewelry & Beading

Debby Arem’s vintage bead shop: EurekaEureka!

by Cyndi on February 7th, 2008

Debby Arem did an artist profile for me last year, and I was excited to find out about her new ventures in 2008!

Debby writes:
My newest shop is called EurekaEureka, and since opening it on Jan.3rd, I’ve already made over 75 sales!!

I decided to open this shop after my first shop, Debby Arem Designs, was so successful and I realized that Etsy is a wonderful way for me to market my work and reach people who value quality goods - in the case of this second shop, quality bead supplies that are what we say they are -and not glass masquerading as stone as we have seen in some other shops!

This second shop is a joint venture with my husband who is a well-known gemological authority, a former Smithsonian Institution curator, and the author of seven books on gems and minerals.

A little background on myself and how this second shop came to be :
I had been trained as silkscreen artist and I have my B.A. in Fine Arts from American University but had given this up because of the toxic fumes from the oil based inks back in the mid 1970’s. I was longing for another creative outlet and after I married my husband, he suggested I learn how to knot beads as he had a number of clients who were interested in fine quality beaded necklaces. It turned out I had a good eye for color and combining various types and shapes of beads and I began to join him on his travels to the Far East where he was going to buy gemstones for his own business; I began buying beads for my business.

Long story short, my Beadles line of beaded necklaces took off and I was fortunate enough to regularly have a number of my beaded necklaces in the Smithsonian Institution Museum’s mail order catalogs and gift shops. I also sold my necklaces in the Sackler Gallery ( also part of the Smithsonian but devoted to Asian art ) as well as the Chicago Art Institute’s mail order catalog and gift shop. In addition, my work was sold in Bloomingdales , Famous-Barr in Chicago and numerous other upscale department stores.

It’s now almost 30 years later and I have managed to accumulate an enormous collection of beads over the years . Most of these beads are no longer even available and are what made and continue to make my work so distinctive . From traveling to the Far East with Joel and actually going in some cases to the little factories who made these unique beads, I found my shelves absolutley BULGING with strands of gemstone beads - carved ones unlike any that are even being produced today, Taiwanese porcelain that we literally “got directly from the source” - i.e. these little tiny factories outside of Taipei, Japanese millefiori glass beads, and unique shapes of gemstone beads that again, aren’t even being produced today. Well, when you go look at my Etsy shop you’ll see what I mean! LOL!

I opened EurekaEureka in the first week of January of this year and already have a following because of the unique beads I am able to offer. Joel and I pride ourselves on selling gem quality stone beads and we are very careful to describe them accurately so that there is no confusion as to what type of stone they are. Obviously, the fact that my husband is a noted authority on the subject of gems and minerals lends credibility to our shop!

I will be constantly adding new items as my studio is a virtual ‘treasure trove’ of unique beads just waiting to be discovered by my Etsy customers! The ancient Greek word”EUREKA!” means “I have found it” and we thought it was a perfect way to describe our shop!

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