The Blind Bead Man

My friend Wendy once told me about a blind man who makes and sells beaded jewelry. She said she had purchased something from him and loves wearing it. I was so pleased and impressed because someone who’s blind ‘sees’ the world differently than we do. And anyone blind who ventures off into a highly visual art such as painting, needlepoint, beading, etc. is bound to offer us a different perspective than a seeing person… would you agree?

I was recently at a street fair kind of event in Southern California, and there he was, a blind man who makes beaded jewelry and beaded objects. Of course, its not the same man that Wendy ran into since she lives 3500 miles away from So. Cal. In chatting with him I learned that he’s a native Californian (a rare breed, indeed!) and that he was born with something called retinitus pigmentosa that lead to his eventual blindness. While the process was relatively slow for him, it made him shift gears and begin to learn things that he could carry on with once he became fully blind. One thing that made the most impression on him was the fine art field. He loves to paint, sculpt, do pottery, and bead. In fact, he loves to SHOP for beads!

I imagine him groping along the bead tables, feeling his way through the store. Beads are very, very tactile. When you see a wall of beads on strands you instinctually want to run your hands through them! Beads in plastic bags are not nearly as tempting. I guess when you can’t use your eyes to see beads you tend to use a different criteria altogether for designing your work. The brilliance of crystals and the glitz of pearls are lost. Goldstone is just another round bead. But I imagine that stones in natural shapes become very intriguing, and so do vintage beads in some of the wonderful old shapes.

I asked this man, named Lyle Gutierez, how he shopped for his beads. He said that it depended on the mood he’s in at the time. Usually he goes right for the walls of strands of beads. Oh, he also dispelled a myth that I’ve heard for years. So many times people have told me that you can tell glass from plastic by its temperature, glass being colder. “Not on a cold day.” says Lyle. He told me that a better way to tell is to tap it on your teeth. Glass makes a different sound than plastic. Stone makes a different sound than glass. He says, wood, bone and horn make dull sounds, and that horn is waxy and wood and bone are porous. Metals are interesting. He can sometimes tell different metals apart by the taste. Taste!! Hmmm… I’ve never tasted my beads before. I think I may have accidentally swallowed a seed bead or two, but not intentionally.

When Lyle makes a necklace, he considers the sound it makes. He may use sequins as spacers between wooden beads in different sizes. For a loud bracelet, he would use polished glass and maybe add a bell to the clasp. His work takes him hours to complete, and he says when he works for a long time on something and accidentally drops it, he makes sure he gets down on the floor to get all the beads back, because usually he remembers what was there! What an amazing memory. And he says he doesn’t mind when he drops it because the fun is in the stringing and handling of the beads.

The finishing work is a bit more challenging. Lyle has learned how to make amazing knots as a decorative finish to clasp off the ends of each bracelet and necklace. The knots are in some cases more interesting than the beads he’s used. Some necklaces have knot-work as the center piece of the necklace, and then beads up the sides, and then knots to the ends. Beautiful! His colors are fantastic and some of the combinations he’s come up with are inspiring. His designs in general make you re-think your perception of beading. I walked away with a broader outlook in designing, and sadly, empty handed. Lyle’s jewelry was more than my pocket book afforded, but I wouldn’t say it was over priced. Let’s just say I wished I had gone to the ATM before shopping that day. His assistant who handles the money and watches his table was all smiles and assured me that I would be sure to run into Lyle again, if I visited the street fairs in Los Angeles county. Lyle moves around and does quite a few. He makes a pretty good living this way. I admire him for his determination to spread his art around, and support himself while doing it. I mean, isn’t that what we all wish for? :-)