It seems, these days, that everything is becoming commercialized, mass produced, and turned into plastic tat or pastiche crap. Things that used to be slightly arty have now been dumbed down and sold at Micheal's to every housewife in American who gets a crafty itch. It's happened with knitting, paper arts and certainly jewelry making. Shoppers can buy complete kits from craft chains, with all the materials to make complete necklaces, from the nylon string to the plastic beads to the base metal findings, these kits come with instructions on how to make a necklace exactly like the one on the package, no creativity required.
Not so at Yone. Everything about this store is authentic, from Herman the proprietor, to the beautiful stones, bits of coral and amber, hand carved beads, all types of cording, findings....I could go on forever. You can find things at Yone you thought were not made any more; perhaps they're not. Prices go from surprisingly cheap, to quite reasonable. The open hours are short, opening at noon and closing at 6:00, but if you want longer hours, you can always go and buy a bead kit at Micheals, instructions included.
478 Union St
San Francisco, CA 94133
415.986.1424
1 comment:
Oh! Yone! I remember it with affection from when I was a young teenager, some 40 years ago. The store is named for its original proprietor, Herman's late husband Yone. This place was my heaven. Yone and Herman were not kind to me. They were both pretty crabby even then. But they had a riotous wealth of luminous, glittering beads! Yone made enormous beaded flowers, maybe two feet across--are those still in the window? Inspired by these, I made life-size birds from beads and wire and gave them away. My father's horrible ex-wife still has the one I gave my father.
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