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ACTIVITY OF THE MONTH
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POTOMAC BEAD COMPANY Sam Florio takes a break from everyday life and steps into the magical world of beading
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HERE is a trend in my articles this month. It's a feeling of entering other worlds that exist behind the doors of shops on Asbury Avenue. The creative minds of Ocean City business owners never cease to amaze me. And this month, along with Alice in Wonderland-esque cafes, I entered the Beading World. It’s a name I made up, yes, but I find it suitable for Potomac Bead Company on the 900 block of Asbury. Inside the store hangs rows and rows of beads. Hundreds of different shapes, sizes, and colors in beautiful strands that glisten with the sunlight. It’s like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, but made of beads. The tables have cups of bright colors, blacks, matte beads and even cute frog beads or creepy skulls. There is a table of just crystal beads that sparkle like magic with each step. Rows of every kind of bracelet or necklace
44 OCEAN CITY MAGAZINE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018
chain you can think of spin on spools attached to front wall. And in the middle of the beautiful beaded rainbow sits a few tables, and Lynda Marino, beading expert. My hands were full of a box of salad leftovers. A big camera bag hung off one shoulder and my backpack off of another. I am the bull in this beading china-shop. But Lynda’s sweet, smiling face welcomed me to a table anyway as she told me to make myself at home. Her necklace, handmade by her, matched her outfit perfectly. Lynda named “glass beads,” “healing gem stones,” and “seed beads” as we made our way around the shop. Seed beads are a very popular kind of bead that I always imagined simply stranded on string, but Lynda explained that the beads can be woven, sewn to create shapes and sparkling weaves. “This is like a different world,” I yelled in the middle of her explanations. I knew my turn to make a bracelet was coming fast, and
it was getting overwhelming. “It is.” Lynda laughed. “It’s kind of a beading world. It’s very different and unique and complicated. Everyone has their niche. But don’t be overwhelmed. Just start.” She grabbed me a beading board. A beading board is a felt board with measurements, like a jewelry ruler. She explained that, to make a bracelet, I have to fill the top straight line with beads. Okay, I thought, simple enough. “Let me stop talking. You just start. I will leave you be, and you can take your time finding what you like,” Lynda said as she led me to thousands of beads. I already decided that I wanted to make an easy, stretchy bracelet. I also explained to Lynda that I took a jewelry making class when I was 12 so essentially I was already on her level, but she just laughed and sent me on my way. The colors of the sea were calling me: greens, turquoise, matte whites and brown. The line on my beading board was full. I
