Saturday, November 30, 2013




This Blog portion is for our people who go on our Bead Tours with us:
- to write about their experiences
- share with friends





*****************************************************************
J-Me and Guy are the owners of Wild Things Beads, a small family run import business specializing in Czech glass beads and buttons and finding the unusual to bring to their warehouse. We also run working bead tours to Czech Republic and Hong Kong.
Our warehouse is located deep in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California, and can be reached by phone at (530)743 1339 or on the web at www.wildthingsbeads.com. We are also open by appointment at their warehouse.

*******************************************************************
May 2010 - Czech Tour
 What a great trip! It was interesting, informative ,educational and FUN. Guy and J-me were able and willing to open up a world of contemporary and historical glass bead and button production that few people have the experience and connections to do.
Wether the trip is for business or pleasure you will not be disappointed!       
Glen C Rollins
Prop. Cats Cradle Antiques

******************************************************************************************
June, 2013- Czech Tour
It has been a little over a month since this tour was completed and I still am pinching myself to be sure that this was one of the greatest trips in my life.  Beads have made me into a traveler that I never expected to be.  I have traveled all over the US and to Australia, Japan, and also cruises to various locations but still I feel much apprehension when starting out on a voyage.  






JMe and Guy expertly arranged this Czech tour of the working bead & button factories.  We also were able to visit many many warehouses to purchase beads, buttons and all sorts of interesting antiques.  They arranged for first class hotels, van travel and helped with custom and shipping arrangements.

Since JMe and Guy have been to the Czech Republic so many times, they have cultivated many contacts in the bead & button trade and also know the best site seeing places and excellent restaurants.

If you want to see the glass bead & button side of the Czech Republic -- this is for you!!!
Margo Field

**********************************************************************************************
May 2013- Czech Tour

Guy and J-Me were fabulous hosts on our bead tour in the Chech Republic. Their knowledge of beads is exceptional and they were very generous in the sharing of their expertise. The bead factories and antique stores were once in a lifetime experiences! I especially enjoyed watching red hot fired glass tubes being hammered into buttons over an ancient furnace. I would highly recommend this tour.
Mary Delaney
Cave Creek, Az
***********************************************************************
May 2013- Czech Tour

December 3, 2013 -
Last May I signed up with J-me and Guy of Wild Things Beads to visit Jablonec nad Nisou in the Czech Republic.  Our trip lasted a week.  All the other participants were bead lovers and this town is famous for producing glass beads , glass buttons, rhinestones, glass cabs and an endless list of small works of art in glass.  We saw many of these in the museum in Jablonec, a place well worth visiting.

Our lodging in Jablonec was very nice., clean, spacious and comfortable.   We had very good food in local restaurants.   The bead shopping was outstanding as  were the demonstrations of old time glass button making.   We went to many kinds of places there that sold glass beads; some were factories, one was in a man's back yard out in the country, one was in a man's house where he had lamp work beads as well as pressed ones.  We went to a couple of antique shops in town and there we could find nearly antique (1920's)   glass beads which we all loved  .We had plenty of time to make our selections.  

Our purchases early on were totaled and packed for shipping by Petra who did an exemplary job.  What beads we didn't want to carry she shipped home for us, a valuable service.  Beads can be really heavy!

I think this trip offers great value for the money.  I would do it again if my house were not full already!  We learned about the history of the region and some of the terrible upheavals  people experienced in WW ll.  Participants  got along well,  and I do believe they all had a great time.   I certainly did! 

Joan Eppen

 ***************************************************************************************************

May 2010- Czech Tour

Without a doubt, the Czech Bead tour sponsored by Wild Things Beads was one of the most memorable trips of my lifetime. Guy and J-ME's familiarity with the country and with the Czech glass industry allowed us to visit sites that would have been unavailable to "unconnected" tourists. The "up close and personal" tours included all facets of glass, bead, and even Holiday ornament production. The group was just the right size: small enough that I didn't feel I was on a tour bus, large enough to get to know a variety of extremely interesting kindred spirits. The area surrounding Jablonec is scenic; the food is yummy; and there's a plethora of old world charm. I don't often want to travel the same road twice, but this is a trip I'd consider repeating!

Helen Dahms
**************************************************************
May 2013

It's hard to write a reference about a unique experience, but J-ME and Guy have created this with their Czech tour.  Although they have repeatedly escorted groups through this part of the world, they continue to include new and different areas of knowledge so that each group's experiences are truly unique.

The tour is focused.  Everyone is interested in and wanting to purchase the glass buttons, beads and other products produced by Czech artists and craftspeople.  Included in this focus is knowledge of the area's glassmaking heritage, which J-ME and Guy enthusiastically share.  The days are effectively scheduled.   The two or three places visited each day range from internationally known high-production factories to individual cottage artists, and local (delicious) eateries.  Some of the days were just little trips, so we then had time to walk around town.   Even though the days are planned, J-ME and Guy are flexible.  My experience here was that when we met some local glass artists who were setting up an exhibit in a nearby town, we were able to have a side-trip added to see it.

Given the opportunity, I will join them again.

Yours truly,
Roxanne 
************************************************************************
May 2013

The Czech bead tour with J-ME and Guy was such a magical experience
for me that, save for my wonderful and vivid memories, I'd almost
question if it was real!  The contacts J-ME and Guy had to develop and
nurture over the years so that we could experience the inside
operations of so many facets of the Czech bead and button industry are
truly unparallelled.  Each day was filled with a diversity of
experiences, from small and rapidly vanishing "Mom and Pop" factories
to warehouses full of beads/buttons/jewelry components never before
seen in my 20 years of extensive bead-shopping in the U.S. and abroad.
 The relationships our tour guides had established with key Czech
people in the industry led to these experts explaining and showing us
the start-to-finish of  a whole variety of fabrication processes, some
actually discovered at the very location we were visiting.  And the
tour led off with a visit to a Czech jewelry museum which was so rich
with visual history and provided such design inspiration that I
thought I might just get locked in at closing time!

Having had a decades-long love affair with beads and glass jewelry, to
include their history, and having voraciously consumed every book I
could find on the subject, I was surprised to find that I nonetheless
encountered new learning and exposure at every turn. Guy, and
especially J-ME, have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Czech industry
and its products, both past and present, information which they share
freely with participants.  She and Guy were also quick to incorporate
unplanned educational and buying opportunities as they spotted them,
so our group experienced more than one delightful "bonus" addition to
our already full itinerary.

The buying opportunities were also amazing.  For example, we were able
to pore over floor-to-ceiling boxes of surplus glass button stock, a
version of heaven for me since buttons figure centrally in my jewelry
designs.  And since I also primarily work with vintage materials, a
second experience of heaven occurred for me when our tour guides took
us to a remote warehouse where I discovered (and purchased!)
"treasures" as diverse as geometric art deco cabochons, and then a
cache of vintage enamel souvenir jewelry parts, depicting locations as
far afield as Bora Bora and Toronto, all manufactured in then-
Czechoslovakia.  And the prices for such bounty were almost
unbelievably low.

The trip was further enriched by the opportunity to bond with a great
group of jewelry designers from several different countries.  It was
terrific fun to experience the daily "exhibit" of beautiful
handcrafted jewelry each designer was wearing as she boarded the bus
each morning, and to be inspired by the creative talents of the group.
 And our itinerary regularly took us into incredibly scenic Czech
countryside, a totally unforeseen element of enjoyment on the tour.
Our hotel accomodations were excellent, with a very helpful staff, for
a remarkably modest price negotiated by our tour leaders.

All in all, J-ME and Guy's Czech bead tour exceeded all of my
expectations and truly was, for me, the trip of a lifetime.  I cannot
recommend it to you more highly.

Linda Pendleton

*************************************************************

May 2011
J-ME & Guy provide a very professional and well informed tour of bead and button makers in the Czech Republic. They are knowledgeable, well organized, affable and flexible. Safe travel and accommodations, plus their friendly easy-going but bead-serious way make for a very pleasant learning and buying experience abroad.
Deborah Robichaud
**********************************
May 2014
WOW!!  If you want to take an awesome trip to Czech Republic then you need to contact Guy and J-Me.  This had to be one of the best trips I've taken.  You will get a behind the scenes trip like no other.  Guy and J-Me have taken this trip for many years and made wonderful friends and they share their knowledge and friendships with you.  Each day was better than the last.  My daughter and I were sad to leave.  We came home with new friends and beads, buttons, glass wear and even more beads.  Guy and J-Me's contacts are amazing.  They have so much knowledge and willing shared it with us.  Not only did I get to see the beautiful  countryside  but I learn a whole lot too.  They were meet with open arms and they shared those friendships with us.  The group we traveled with was small enough to get to know each other and we enjoyed everyone so much.  I hope to once again take this trip and bring friends with me.  Sign up for the next trip and don't miss out.  You will be so glad you did.  Maybe we will even get to meet you on our second trip.

Michele and Samantha LaBounta.

**************************************************************************
May 2014
The Wild Things Beads tour in the Czech Republic offers access to production facilities -- historic and modern -- that you couldn't see on your own.  The connections among the varied glass workers, and their pride in the glass-making tradition of the region, became clear as we visited artists' studios and specialist factories.  Mix this in with museums, lots of buying opportunities, the chance to view private collections, great food and beautiful countryside, and you end up with a very memorable week.  I can recommend this tour to anyone interested in the making of glass buttons and beads.

cheers

Sue Dickout