A B O U T U S
Note from Viki Lareau:
"Mark & I owned The Bead Factory in Tacoma for 22 years. About two years ago, I was observing what an amazing community our Bead Club members had created amongst themselves. Mark & I started to work on developing an environment that would nuture & inspire this community by focusing primarily on jewelry education. We wanted a place our members could feel at home and discover there were others who shared our crazy bead passion!
There is something almost magical in watching someone “connect“ to jewelry making. Sometimes that means doing a technique successfully for the first time, other times it may be when someone finishes their project in class and everyone tells them how beautiful it is. Often times it has nothing to do with accomplishing anything in particuliar. It is an energy around the metal or the beads, that excitement about all the possibilities! We would squeal with delight if we didn’t remember we were adults!
I am so inspired by these moments, and grateful to be able to create more of them. I ask for feedback and ideas as we build LJDC organically into whatever we are going to grow up to be!
Follow us on Facebook, become a member, take some classes, and let’s see what happens? One thing for sure - it’s going to be fun! (and we’re all going to be well accessorized!) Thank you for all of your support it is not possible without you, and we wouldn’t want to do this without you!"
Oct 1989 - Viki & Mark meet while working for the same Canadian bead company. It was love at first sight (for Viki, Mark needed some coaxing having heard about wild American girls) They were married a year later!
May 1992 - first son Trevor is born in British Columbia.
Sept 1992 - The Bead Factory opens in Freighthouse Square in Tacoma
March 1993 - TBF (The Bead Factory) opens a second store in Seattle on Capitol Hill.
April 1994 - TBF buys an existing Rubber Stamp store and renames it The Stamp Factory.
August 1994 - TBF rents a pool and fills it with water and over $2000 of beads. Divers paid
$5 to benefit “Operation Lookout” and to get 30 seconds to collect as many beads as they
could hold. It was on every news channel that evening.
Feb 1995 - Twins Sophia & Julian are born 5 weeks early at 7lbs13oz &
8lbs1oz respectively!
Jan 1996 - Seattle store closes, and TBF Wholesale opens
August 1996 - The first Puget Sound Bead Festival takes place at Freighthouse Square with 16 vendors.
July 1998 - TBF collects hundreds of toy guns from children in exchange for bead kits. The toy guns are crushed by a steamroller outside the store.The story makes the national news, and TBF receives a congratulatory letter from sitting President Bill Clinton and another from Hillary 10 days later!
1999 - PSBF makes the move to the newly remodeled Union Station with 50 vendors and new classes!
2000 - TBF moves to 6th Ave, the corner of 6th & Fife
2001 - Mark’s 1st book All Wired Up is published by Interweave Press and becomes an industry best seller. This book has sold over 100,000 copies to date.
2001 - Viki makes her first trip to India on Oct 11th, exactly one month after 9/11
2003 - TBF moves down 6th Ave to a new 5,000 sq ft home!
2003 -2004 Mark makes several appearances on DIY, and public televisions Beads, Baubles & Jewels.
2005 - PSBF makes the move to the Sheraton
2006 - Viki authors her business book “Marketing & Selling Your Handmade Jewelry”
2007 - TBF wins Best Small Business for Customer Service by the Better
Business Bureau
2007 - Mark authors his 2nd book “Getting Started Making
Metal Jewelry” also by Interweave Press
2008 - TBF wins “Top Places to Work” in Tacoma
2008 - TBF wins Evening Magazines Best Of Western Washington Awards for
“Best Craft Store”
2009 - TBF wins “Best Small Business” in The Best of the South Sound Magazine
2010 - PSBF moves to the new Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center with over 120 vendors and 100 classes! A large media company offers to buy the show & we decline.
2012 - Celebrating 20 years of beads and our customers who
love them!
Once Upon a Bead: A Timeline
