blue russian beads.
The so-called “Russian” beads were made in Jablonec, Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic), and shipped by way of China to the Russian American Company in Alaska. From there, they made their way down the coast to the Columbia, where Chinook traders carried them upriver to Celilo Falls, the oldest continually occupied settlement in North America and a trading center that drew people from as far away as the Great Lakes. Other beads reached the Northwest in the trade goods carried overland by Hudson's Bay voyageurs.
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How did imperfecta find these beads? The better question would be: how did these beads find imperfecta?
It all started the day when David Hedges, a local antique beads collector and dealer, came to the gallery for a visit. David noticed a necklace in the jewelry cabinet and wondered about its beads' origin - are they Antique Egyptian? he asked. From there, I learned about his decades-long beads' pursuit and incredible collection.
When he mentioned the "Blue Russians", their history and their importance for local tribes I could not help but ask whether I could see them. A week later, David and his cheerful smile re-enter the gallery and... the rest is history.
David's blue Russian beads are now available in our online catalog, mounted as earrings and necklaces.
​Note: given the antique and handmade nature of these beads, please appreciate their subtle differences and variations.
[check out this video, in which David explains how these beads were made - insane story!]
Oregon City poet and author David Hedges discovered beads in 1980 and has been collecting ever since, amassing thousands of glass, shell, bone, stone, and metal beads dating as far back as ancient Egypt, Rome, and pre-contact America. A special focus is the late 17th century to mid-18th century fur trade era in the Pacific Northwest, and the Russian blue faceted beads that were the favorites of Indigenous people from Alaska to the Columbia River. They come in several colors, but blues were the most highly prized. David recently sold a five-and-a-half-foot strand of half-inch cobalt blues to a leader of the Quinault Nation on the Olympic Peninsula, who wept upon receiving them.