Beads galore in the Attic

Although she spent much of her adult life in office work, Trace Mielke’s longtime interest in fashioning jewelry ultimately evolved into her own business.

She recently opened Bead Addicts Attic in the Garland District on the city’s North Side, but the store’s offerings can’t be summed up in just “beads.”

Mielke has taken a variety of classes at the Spokane Art School and the Corbin Art Center ranging from beading and jewelry-making to silversmithing, and those interests are apparent in her store.

Of course, there is an array of “beads” – for example, glass beads, crystals, pearls, pendants of various semiprecious stones and “lampwork,” that is, glass figures created with a propane torch.

The inventory of a wide variety of items for jewelry-making in a range of sizes and colors is almost mind-boggling to the unprepared shopper.

Bead Addicts Attic is a store perfect for the computer era. Mielke keeps track of her inventory with a “grocery store computer,” she says.

The store offers a class in jewelry-making one evening a week, with a Saturday class planned later. The classes run perhaps two hours and possibly as long as four hours, depending on the project chosen by the instructor. Class cost is $12.50, and all needed materials are available in the store.

Jewelry-making tools that Mielke says are not readily available elsewhere also are offered in the store. A large magazine rack displays manuals offering ideas and techniques.

She also offers specialty items including scarves, purses and some unusual tie-dyed blouses along with some handsome vases and delicate figurines.

The store, which has been open “about six months,” is Mielke’s first experience as a business owner. So far, she finds the store is “doing pretty good.”

The decision to start the business was the result of a “major midlife change.” She recently turned 45 and after “15-plus years” was tired of the stress of a supervisory job in an insurance company office.

“So I decided if you don’t do it, you’ll always wish you did,” she said.

She and her husband, Guy, live close to the store with their daughters, Alyx, 14, and Morgan, 9.

Mielke likes having her business along Garland Avenue. She sees the venerable business district gaining new life.