Welcome to the Boca Loca Story
Places Boca Loca Inc. (in red) has been in search of the most exotic, special and highest quality beads.
Boca Loca Beads opened for business in the Summer of 1989, although its real beginning was five years
earlier on the streets of Lima, Peru.
As a college student, Jari Sheese, the owner of Boca Loca Beads, spent a year in an overseas study program in Peru, South America. Studying Spanish and Anthropology.
She fell in love with all aspects of Peruvian culture including the street artisans. The artisans and the jewelry became the thesis for one of her classes. She was soon adopted and befriended by what she still calls the "Master wire benders of the Universe".
For six months she lived as a street artisan selling her own jewelry and living off the meager sum she made each day. This life changing experience molded what was to become a career. Jari returned to the U.S. with a hand full of beads, some wire, and a set of pliers, not knowing that the adventure was just beginning. Over twenty years later, Jari still has a passion for beads. She has traveled extensively around the world to search for unique and beautiful treasures.
The Bead Museum
In the era of chain stores, malls and internet sales, we do what we can to set ourselves apart. We are starting our 19th year in business and have seen many trends come and go, even beads stores can be a trend. For quite a few years, we were the only bead store in the State of Indiana. The times have changed and the choices are many but nothing can replace your good old independently owned bead store. Where else can you find 2,000 year old glass beads or mammoth ivory, hand-carved into skeleton lovers who didn't accept the "til death do us part" of love. These pieces are actually for sale in the store but what is not for sale is worth a moment of your time.
We have traveled the globe in search of unique and rare treasure, some of it ended up in our special display case we call "The Museum". In this case, you will find a glass bead from the "Warring States" period in China dating from 200-400 B.C. probably found by some farmer much like we find arrowheads here. While in China we also found some fabulous beaded slippers, where until recently, the experts tried to say that there was no beadwork in China's past. Also, in the case, we travel to another exotic time and place to find Pre-Colombian beads from the desert coast of Peru. These beads, known as "chaquiras" are primarily made from a now extinct giant spondylus thorny oyster shell. These tiny beads were the "seed beads" of the time and the cultures of the Chimu and Moche people did bead work using these treasures. Or travel to the island paradise of Bali in Indonesia and watch a wedding procession meandering down a dirt road amidst the flora and fauna, atop the heads of the sarong clad women you will find an elaborately beaded basket filled with fruit and food prepared for the celebration.
Or perhaps we travel across "the pond" and gaze at a strand of Roman glass beads or from more recent times, a hank of steel cut seed beads from France, never finding their way into those lovely beaded bags 100 years ago. While we are in France, let's go digging in the "tas" or "dump" where we find ourselves crunching with each step in a large open field full of glass from a 100 years of rejection where decisions are made to throw it into the dump to make room for the newest color, shape of style of bead or button. Dig yourself in to a hole deeper than your are tall to get to the really old stuff, just like an archeologist, or like a beadologist. Think of the wars that have come and gone and the people who loved the fashion of the day, those beads, beads, beads, or those Moulin Rouge girls in their sparkling crystal jewels that never got set into a headdress or neckpiece, they are treasures in our case.
Or maybe you just want to see an idea, a yellowed piece of paper with a hand drawn picture of a necklace to be strung for the masses from Bohemia. You see the word "druk" written with a fountain pen and know that it is a smooth round bead. Before you leave the Bohemian life, you need to pick out a hand-painted glass button from a sample book from the early 1900's, all written by hand and carefully sewn into a hard bound book, nearly a thousand and all different, just like new. You'll never find them again because the paint would have disappeared if the button had ever found its way onto a piece of clothing. This special "Museum" is a byproduct of love of beads. Beads are so much more than a small object with a hole used for adornment.
New Lampworking Studio
After long years of dreaming and endless hard work, we are elated to announce the installation of our new state of the art Lampworking studio. The ten-sided metal table fosters a wonderful interactive learning experience. And the ten-sided stainless steel ventilation hood is a work of art in itself, resembling a hovering spacecraft from another galaxy. Our new facility is open to students who would like to rent studio time. We provide all the equipment and tools needed and the student can store their glass or extra supplies here in the studio. The amazing world of glass is here in Indianapolis. At Boca Loca Beads, the perfect environment for creative learning is waiting to be discovered and explored.
Boca Loca Beads - Bloomington 1989-2003 |
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Boca Loca Beads - Indianapolis 2001 - 2006 |
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