Breathing new life into old handicrafts

At the beginning of the 19th century, beading was an important textile handicraft, and produced highly sought-after luxury accessories for fashion-conscious women. The beaded bags were particularly popular during the Biedermeier period in Europe, and were worn on cords or chains.

Industrialised textile manufacturing and changing fashions caused these handicrafts to slowly die out. Starting with a special find at a flea market, Claudia Flügel-Eber, has amassed a collection of historical bags and sample patterns over the years, relearning and reviving the old handicraft along the way.

The bag maker has over 300 sample patterns. The designs are painted on checkered paper, with each box on the checked paper representing a bead. After this stage, beads are strung box by box using linen, cotton, or silk thread.

Knitting with extremely fine needles takes a huge amount of dexterity and patience. It takes around 70 hours of work to make one small beaded bag.

An average of 30,000 glass beads are stitched into each bag. The 1.2 mm round beads used to come from Venice or Bohemia. Today, the artist gets her high-quality glass beads from Japan.

When finishing the bag, the inside can be fitted with leather or cotton yarn. Fringing can also be added to the bottom and crochet bordering to the top.