One person,
a lot of beads

I’m Karen. I make every piece that leaves this shop.

Nano Exotics started because I wanted something green in a window that would stay green. Real plants and I have a complicated history. Glass ones don’t care whether I remember to water them, and when the afternoon sun comes through they do something a real plant can’t — they throw colour across the wall.

Every piece is faceted AB-coated glass on plated copper wire, strung one bead at a time. A mini is two hundred and fifteen beads. The large ceramic is seven hundred and twenty. I count them because the count is the work.

Nothing is made in advance. When an order comes in I start it, and a big one is seven hundred and twenty beads, every one threaded and twisted by hand, before it is packed. Most go out inside a week or so — longer when the queue is deep, and I would rather move that number than post one I can’t keep. It’s the only way this gets made.

Every piece is made and mailed from Cerritos, California — the whole thing, start to finish, in California, USA.

— Karen