Five years and a million beads later; Robin & Theresa Mansfield are celebrating their family business, Glass with Class Bead Store.
As soon as you walk past the river rock front of the store, you already know this is way more than your average bead store. Robin and Theresa are not just the owners -- they are designers, instructors, consultants and are involved in every aspect of the business. Robin coined the phrase "We are a full-service working bead store."
The store was named "Glass with Class" because Theresa started out making lamp work beads from glass rods using a torch. Robin told Theresa her glass beads have class. Today, the name has two meanings, glass and class as in classroom with eight professional instructors. They each teach about their own special jewelry item. When you check out the many samples of finished jewelry that you can make, it might look inntimidating, but it's not as difficult as it looks.
Theresa is a certified instructor in silver clay. She also teaches bronze clay and dichroic fused glass pendants. Robin teaches the beginner beading 101 classes and also loves to make jewelry from recycled silverware.
"Most classes, you will walk out with your finished masterpiece in just two or three hours," she says. No need to purchase tools, you can use theirs.
If you need anything fixed, Theresa says, "Robin is the go to guy for repairs, you won't believe the things he fixes for for people or his knowledge of parts, glues and epoxy, it must be a man thing."
There are more than 1 million beads at the store, but it could be called the componenet store. Components are all the other parts and accessories that it takes to make the many different types of jewelry.
"Three things make nice jewelry: color, design and proportion. After a little knowledge, the creative process will come naturally. There is rally no wrong look; it's all about what you like," Theresa says."
"From an article in The Oakland Press, October 24, 2010, page F-5"
