Bead history/production hot spots

[Beadnik]

I am applying for a grant to travel and study beads in different areas of the world, and one location I would like to visit is China.  Do you know of specific locations that I could visit to see bead production happening?  I am interested in all kinds of bead making, but will be focusing primarily on bead traditions in China, ie: pearl harvesting.  Any ideas?  Places to look into visiting?  People I should contact?  

Also, I am in need of advice for India, Belgium, Austria, Murano, and the Czech Republic.  

Thank you -

Meg

[Russ Nobbs]

Hi Meg,

Do you speak Mandarin or will your grant allow the cost of Chinese speaker to work with you?

There are large areas of china with FWP production. Easiest to see are the Pear River Delta and the production factories in Guangdong province and showroms in TST area of Hong Kong. You can see some pix from our travels  at http://rtnews.rings-things.com/travels2/freshwater_pearl_farms.htm

For India Jaipur for gemstones, purldapur for glass. See www.thebeadsite.com for some india history from the late Peter Francis Jr. Austria, of course, is Swarovski. Their site has some hsitorical info www.swarovski.com.  There are many bead makers in Murano, Venice Italy.
Maybe you should send me a private e-mail and we can arrange a time to talk about this by phone. I can probably give you a number of places to start your research to support your grant writing.