KILLER BEADS AND JEWELLERY
Location:
Hours of Business:
Phone:
Web Address:
1968 Oak Bay Ave.
Mon - Sat 10am - 6pm, Sun 12pm - 4pm
595-2061
(under construction) www.killerbeadsandjewellery.com
Chosen for:
Create your own jewellery
Unique beads/antique jewellery & furniture
Charming owners
Braving a potentially serious snowfall, 21 chilly Grapeviners gathered for our December 1st, 2007 "graping". As we entered family-owned/operated Killer Beads & Jewellery, husband and wife Diane Nichol and Oscar Corletto and their son Michael Nichol were all behind the counter. With big smiles, they accepted our purple balloon bouquet. "Well, we're definitely surprised!" admitted Diane with tears in her eyes.
Husband and wife Diane Nichol and Oscar
Corletto own the shop and their son Michael
Nichol manages it. "This is quite
overwhelming," Diane confessed. "Thank
you
all for being so wild and crazy!"
- Photos by Sandra Tennant and
Barbara McDonell
Diane and Oscar own the shop, while Michael manages it. The store is elegantly decorated with the very items available for sale. Art, figurines, stained glass windows, old wooden decoys, baskets, boxes, and more. There's a large choice of beautiful handmade cards from Nepal and collage cards made locally. Michael pointed out some unique handmade gift bags, tags, and boxes from Nepal ("for people like me who are present-wrapping impaired") - many quite unique and all priced under $5.
As the crowd explored, we were drawn by a display case featuring autumn-coloured jewellery in eye-popping designs. At the counter, a killer selection of loose semi-precious beads incorporates the entire colour wheel. Sandra found a silver brooch (see first photo above) that we all admired; many hoped she'd put it back down – but nope, she bought it for a friend.
Interested in creating your own jewellery? Michael realized that a lot of people wanted to design something cool or quirky for themselves so he offers in-store evening classes. For approximately $50, depending upon the beads chosen, you can learn beadwork or wirework and take home your own creations. He even offers private groups for 6-10 friends, business associates or wedding parties.
One Grapevine participant said her mother was now blind but had always knitted and crocheted. She wondered if the owners could help her create worry beads that would give her mom something to do with her hands. There was much nodding of three heads, with Oscar suggesting "different textures" to make them interesting for her.
Choose ready-made jewellery... or from a killer selection of loose semi-precious beads at reasonable prices.
Quite mesmerizing were Ojme beads signed by the Thailand artist and intricately carved of boxwood. Each piece takes up to four hours to make ($15) and are drilled with holes so they can be used as buttons or pendants. The large choice includes many monkeys in various stances, but we also found a sweet little mouse in a periwinkle shell, some Pisces fish, and a snake.
The majority of furniture is big and definitely makes a statement. Although antique furniture doesn't normally interest Barbara, everything here did. Nancy said "the longer I look at a piece, the more details I see". We found an oak desk with drop front on sale for $650, and fell in love with a gorgeous Victorian English wash stand made of walnut with a marble top, tile backsplash and ornate mirror (reduced to $995). Upstairs in the loft area, a Chinese hardwood chair was ornately carved in the 1920s and reduced to $750.
We fell in love with a gorgeous Victorian English wash stand made of walnut with a marble top, tile backsplash
and ornate mirror.
Diane and Oscar met at age 25 as professional ballet and jazz dancers. They each have more than a quarter century's experience in the antique business. On Sarala's initial visit to the store she discovered that she, Diane and Oscar all share the zodiac sign of Virgo. Surprisingly, Diane and Oscar's birthdays actually fall on the same day (September 9th) and year.
The store used to be called Oak Bay Antique Mystique and for one and a half years carried a mix of antique furniture, jewellery and beads. The owners believe in "going with the flow", so a new name was developed for a fresh new look: Killer Beads & Jewellery. When contemplating new names to incorporate their new direction and bringing Michael on board, Diane and Oscar were held hostage for two hours by 10,000 swarming bees! Because they enjoy puns, they decided to call the shop Killer Be(ad)s. With its new name, the shop had only been open for one week when we arrived to "grape" it!
Diane feels it is important to connect with the people actually making the products she sells so, as much as possible, she purchases her stock from small groups of people rather than from big trade shows or the open market. As a result, 100% of the profit from their hand-made Nepal cards goes directly back to the village where they were made, a yoga center that supplies the Thailand silver donates their gains to schools, and 40% from the incense and certain paper items returns to the spiritual community that makes them.
With the gift-giving season already upon us, you might consider a gift certificate for someone hard to please – perhaps they'll choose jewellery, or even one of Michael's classes. If you've already purchased a tiny item, this is the perfect place to find a box to put it in that's so lovely you won't need to wrap it. On the other hand, maybe you'll want to drop a hint to "Santa" about what you'd like to find under your tree on Christmas morning!