Hi! We're Jan and Leo Smith and together we own and operate Beadman Enterprises, a second-generation family business established in 1968. Back in 1968, it was a combination Native American handicrafts, jewelry and beads, and all around "curiosity" store called the Hobby Hunting Grounds located in Anacortes, Washington. Owned by my parents, Ken and Doris Howell, it operated on evenings, weekends, and during the summers. For five years, I was responsible for managing the store and had the opportunity to accompany Ken and Doris on various buying trips. It was definitely a fascinating time for me and I learned a lot about the family business but had no intention of sticking around our small town. After all, life beyond the valley was calling out to me and I eventually moved to the big city where I was extremely blessed to meet and later marry Leo. After that, we just continued to live in the big city, raise a family, and both work full-time. Now flash forward twenty-two years later to 1995 and surprise, surprise... I'm back in the family business!

During those twenty-two years, life for Ken and Doris had become a whirlwind of activity. First, they closed the store in order to focus solely on a wholesale bead business in Anacortes along with a retail bead store in Seattle. In addition to that, they worked the Indian & Western and Rock & Gem show circuits up and down the West Coast. Then in 1977, they moved the wholesale bead business to its current location in Sedro-Woolley and eventually closed the retail store in Seattle. While continuing with the show circuits, they also traveled extensively throughout the states and overseas on buying trips. They were one of the first importers of Toho Beads in the United States and commissioned two factories in Korea that produced beads exclusively for their business. Over the years, Ken became known as "The Original Beadman" and they both shared their passion and extensive knowledge of beads by becoming founding members of the Northwest Bead Society in 1983. In later years, they quit the show circuits and kept the bead business going by spending their winters in Quartzsite and the rest of the time in Sedro-Woolley. It was at that point, they started trying (year after year) to sell us the business so they could retire. Although it was a business that always intrigued and interested us, we would eventually decide at the time it was best just to stay put with the security of the jobs we had.

Then in early 1994, while Leo was recuperating from injuries sustained in a major car accident, we took a long, hard look at our (by then) high stress jobs and our quality of life. With the kids now grown and out on their own, we finally decided it was time for a leap of faith and took Ken and Doris up on their latest offer. But this time, not only did they want to sell us the business but also the property including the house and warehouse. Although it came as a bit of a surprise, it was a dream-come-true for me. This was a chance to come full circle with a business that I had started out with back in 1968 AND to live somewhere that had always held a special place in both Leo's and my heart (it's been in my family since 1912). Although somewhat scary to basically be starting over, we quit our jobs, sold our home in the city, and moved here to take on the family business. By the end of 1994, we had purchased everything and on January 1st, 1995, we took over under the name Beadman Enterprises.

The reality of taking on the family business didn’t take long to sink in. After all that time, there was quite a substantial learning curve, especially for Leo who hadn’t dealt much at all with the beads. Our biggest assets were that we each brought with us a well-balanced blend of backgrounds to help with the business side of things AND we were both eager to learn everything we could about beads. It also helped that we were still able to enlist Ken and Doris for several years as our "personal mentors". While Ken passed away in Arizona in January 1999, we were able to arrange for Doris to live in a small place of her own on the property until she passed away in June 2006.

Many changes have taken place since we took over in 1995, both in continuing to honor the rich history of this family business and to create a unique business identity of our own. Over the years, we have taken a business that was mainly "on the road" and turned it into an on-line business which now operates year round from this location. We've gone from hand written inventories and mail order catalogs to computerized inventories and an on-line only catalog. Our initial website was launched in 2000 and this website several years later. There was even a point in 2007 when we felt it was time to "move on" and we put the business up for sale. After two years of being unable to secure a buyer, however, we discovered that what we really wanted was just some redirection. So we've overhauled the warehouse and gone through all the mixed, buried, and long forgotten stock in an effort to make sure all previously undiscovered inventory is posted on-line. We will continue to streamline Beadman Enterprises and at the same time will transition into a new venture called Skiyou Treasures which we hope to have up and running by late spring 2012 (www.skiyoutreasures.com). Skiyou Treasures will deal mainly in antique trade & millefiori beads, unique handmade beads, stone cabochons & donuts, buckhorn buttons, and handcrafted jewelry, none of which will be available on this website. Needless to say, we are both very excited with this new direction and all the wonderful possibilities it presents.

We've come to the conclusion that, while it's sometimes overwhelming and more often than not quite challenging, it is definitely rewarding! We've enjoyed the bead business and the many wonderful people we've met along the way and hope to stay active with it for a long time yet to come !!