Do it yourself at Bridgeville’s Bead Yourself
Scavenging on the beach on family vacations is a vivid memory for Jeanne Vanderpool. Not looking for the biggest shell like the rest of her sisters, but finding the appreciation of little ones.
That search continued at stores near her Canonsburg home to decorate the baseline of her early childhood designs: her father’s fishing line.
The little things in life have always been more important to Vanderpool.
Every time she passed the quaint shop at 408 Station Street in Bridgeville, she was enchanted by the possibilities the nook had to offer. A little store nestled into the corner of a building, allowing drivers’ eyes to wander during lengthy red lights and pedestrians to stroll by as they get to the other parts of town.
Never did she think she would be the tenant.
But as beads overflowed on her dining room table, under beds, in drawers and jewelry boxes, both she and her husband knew it was time.
“It was a Sunday night, and I was scrolling down looking for smaller studios and found one with an address in Bridgeville,” she recalled. “I just decided to go and check it out, I kept driving, and the closer I got, I thought, are you kidding me? It was the place I always looked at, and I honestly just couldn’t believe it.”
After acting quickly, Vanderpool turned the knotty pine walls that formerly hung razors and scissors for Cuts by Kireacos, a barbershop that once maintained the space, into what is now painted white and turquoise to house the jewelry of Bead Yourself, the store she opened in February.
That was followed by a stained-glass film that covers the upper portion of two windows and makes its way to the old barbershop pole outside of the door to welcome customers, some of the past and some of the present.
“I’ve had old men pop their head in as they are walking by to tell me how they had their first haircut in here,” said Vanderpool, who continues to bring more color into the space. “There is a whole sense of community here. I have walk-ins where people just are looking to buy particular beads. I have mothers come in with their children for little workshops.”
The creativity of Vanderpool comes from her travels to various parts of the world and living in Santa Fe, N.M., for several years. She would buy cheap clay-composed jewelry off the street just to disassemble the pieces and create her own design.
“Beads are universal,” she said. “That’s what I love about it. I would have my girlfriends always come over to my house and would have all this stuff for them. They would say to make me this or make me that. After a while, I said come over and bead yourself. That’s how the name came to be.”
Now, with the motto “Make it! Wear it! Love it!” Vanderpool welcomes others the freedom to be creative, use their imagination and bead themselves.