Blue Fire Beads and Jewelry is a full store bead store
owned and operated by Mari & Keith Johnson. We opened in April of
2003, with the intention of bringing the world of beads and beadmaking
to the southwest suburbs of Chicago.
Why Blue Fire?
Keith
named the store Blue Fire Beads & Jewelry because the flame that
comes from Mari's torch is a beautiful blue. That flame is what started
our dream...Mari learned beadmaking or lampworking as it is called, and
started selling her beads on eBay and her website mjlampwork.com
5 years ago, and when life handed us lemons, we made lemonade. Keith
was downsized, Mari's Dad had health problems, and it made sense to
move from Michigan back to the Chicago area where we met and where Mari
was born and raised.
So, we moved to New Lenox in September of 2002 and
opened the store the folowing spring. Our daughter, Brooke, came on
board part time and then began full time in 2004. She is a talented
jewelry designer, a caring, patient teacher, and helps our customers
with selection and design in the store.
Keith runs the store, does the books, and is the
principal buyer. If you can't find it, Keith is the man to go to. If we
don't have it, Keith can usually find it, and get it!
Mari is the web mistress, teaches lampworking and
co-ordinates the classes and workshops, in addition to filling custom
lampwork orders. Mari's beads can be seen online at Mari Johnson Designs.
We all enjoy our work immensely and are very grateful
for the support of our friends and family, and our loyal customers,
without whose help we could never have achieved our dream.
Our Mission
It is our goal to bring forth creativity in our
customers, by making available to them the most nurturing teachers,
high quality materials, books and tools at prices that are affordable.
We believe that there is an artist in each person we meet, just waiting
for the right time and atmosphere to come out and create beautiful
things. In nurturing the artist, we promote creativity and beauty in
our world.
