A Beadmaker's Philosophy
While reading a trade magazine in 2001, I came across the following article written by Tom Boylan. I was so touched by it that I have carried it around with me. Now as I introduce my humble offering of beads to the world, I would like to pass it on to you with my prayer that the gods be kind to you, hear your prayers and answer them too.
Some people make beads. Some people make art. Some people make, through their beads, a kind of prayer -- a ceremonial offering of their energies, imaginings and visions, the final product of which, the bead, is to be offered to the world as a kind of talisman or charm. What all people who make beads have in common is that when they are beading, they are also praying. How is this possible?
In Old English, the word Gebed meant prayer. By Middle English, the word had morphed into Bede. We can clearly see in this rudimentary form the beginning of the modern word Bead. But how did the meaning of the word change from prayer to the object we now know as a bead?
It happened like this:
An old custom, still living today among some members of the Roman Catholic Church, is to count prayers on a string of beads known as Rosaries. This practice evolved into the expression, "to count one's beads". In time, the word Bede came to mean prayers, prayer beads, and Beads. To further the semantic change, another word from Latin, precari, which worked its way into the English language and became our word prayer. Thus, with another word, prayer, signifying the action of begging to, or seeking to supplicate the Divine, the original word Gebed, or later, Bede was free to take on its newer and different meaning, which is the small glass object we find ourselves so fascinated with today.If you think about the origins of the word bead, along with the following, it becomes really surprising. First, Spirit, or that which is activated through prayer, is usually represented through the element of fire (the torch). Second, the intended effect of prayer is usually to cause some change in our circumstances or condition, for example, to bring about a transformation of some kind. Last, the intended effect of the beadmaker is to use the torch to bring about some level of transformation in the glass and raise it to a higher level of aesthetic enterprise. So when you enter your workshop (temple) to sit before your work bench (alter) to use your torch (spirit) to create a Bede or Bead, you are, in effect, praying.
May the gods receive your Bedes, or hear your prayers, and may they answer them too!
The preceeding was taken from the book, "Introduction to Historical Linguistics", by Anthony Arlotto.
To view Tom Boylan's work, please visit tomboylan.com.