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by Tina Osceola

have met very few people

I
who could walk past a candy
store without being drawn in by the
rainbows of color that usually drape the walls
and stocked shelves with bins of beautifully
decorated gumdrops, jelly beans and foil wrapped
It was by this
chocolates. The burst of colors is hard to ignore. I am the same way with
age that I had
beads! A bead store provokes the same sensory reaction as
a firm grasp on
Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory! It is safe to say that I am as
entrepreneurship.
addicted to beads as I am to sugar.
I made enough
This is one of the necklaces I made during the pandemic. Vintage
profit to buy supplies
silver mercury dimes, sterling silver findings and red coral.
and chip in to pay my
This addiction started when I was a very young girl. My first memory
own tuition at St. Ann
of beading was when I was about 4 or 5 years old. My parents handed me
Catholic School.
a spool of leather and a bowl of plastic pony beads and told me to start
As I grew older, my
stringing bracelets and necklaces. At first they would make the knots
taste for beads matured
in the leather so that the beads wouldn’t fall off, but eventually I did
into a love for Czech glass,
that myself. We would travel throughout the country attending Pow-
handmade lampwork, Swarovski crystal and gemstones. As a teen,
Wows and arts and crafts festivals, where I would sell beaded Jewelry
my grandmother taught me to string necklaces using vintage silver
alongside my family’s crafts.
coins. We would wear these coin necklaces when we dressed up for
I will never forget the first time I bought my own beads. We were at a
our annual ceremonies and special occasions. She would warn me to
Pow-Wow in Ft. Pierce, Florida and my grandma, Juanita Osceola, gave
be careful not to string them too tight because the holes in the coins
me $4.00 from her change box and told me that
would cut my thread.
I could go buy myself a snack. I never made it because the vendor who
A photo of my grandmother, Juanita Osceola and I, demonstrating
sold beads and other supplies was set up between our booth and the Pepsi
Seminole arts and crafts at the Florida Folk Festival in White Springs,
wagon.
FL. This was taken in 1977, I was 9 years old.
I picked out some beautiful blue beads with flowers painted on the
My grandmother was a source of inspiration and an enabler when it
glass and my own needles and thread. The vendor put my treasures in a
came to my bead addiction. She would bring me bags of beads to string
little brown bag and the exchange of money for the beads was the best
for her to wear and big, huge chunks of beeswax to use on the string.
feeling EVER! I was 5 years old.
Every time she would hand me a bag of beads, I would get that same
This photo was taken in St Augustine in 1975. I was standing in front
rush of excitement that I felt when I spent my first $4.00.
of our family’s arts and crafts booth, selling my beadwork, trying to. In
My grandmother passed away during my sophomore year of college
the background from L-R are my mom (Joanne Osceola), my dad ( O.B.
in 1987. I still have some of the beads she gave me as well as one small
Osceola, Sr), my Aunt Mary Moore and her husband Frank Moore.
little piece of beeswax. Beading isn’t a hobby for me. Beading is a way
It seemed like, from that point forward, every quarter that came into
of life and an intimate part of where I come from. I am confident that
my possession was spent on beading supplies. My Aunt Marie taught me
is in my DNA.
how to make rings out of wire and seed beads. I would make a hundred or
I have passed this love and way of life down to my daughter,
more at a time and carefully wrap them on pipe cleaners in groups of 10. I
Dakota, who is also teaching my granddaughter Mia, how to string
would then “wholesale” them to my Uncle Pete, who had a store down at
small plastic beads onto stretchy nylon string. We are tying her knots
Shark Valley or I would sell them in our booth on the weekends.
like my grandmother and parents did for me. So if you see me in my
By the third grade, I had learned to make spiderweb collar necklaces,
favorite local bead store, the Bead Boutique of Naples, and I seem
similar to those worn by the Notorious RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg).
hypnotized, don’t worry about me, I am in my happy place.
Life in Naples |March 2026 79