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Stop 262 – Family tour – Beaded Basket
Kid 1: I don’t know why someone would put anything in this basket. It might fall through
all those holes!
Kid 2: I think it’s supposed to be more like a picture that you’d hang on a wall.
David: “We’re looking at a very carefully constructed framework made of stout wires
and covered, you can see, literally covered with thousands upon thousands of tiny beads.
We call them seed beads, which have been threaded on very, very fine wire and then attached
in place to produce this riot of color and decoration of flowers and fruits and berries.”
Narrator: Almost 400 years ago in Europe, huge quantities of beads were made in places
like Venice and Amsterdam and shipped all over the world.
David: “Many of them didn’t travel quite all the way around the world, they traveled
across the North Sea to England, and in the mid-sixteen hundreds in England, a style of
beadwork developed of which this is a very good example.”
Kid 2: So that explains why the man and woman in the middle of the basket are dressed like
Pilgrims from the Mayflower.
Narrator: Speaking of flowers, here’s a brain-teaser for you.
David: “Look very carefully in the middle of all these flowers and fruits, and just
count up how many butterflies you can see, I promise you there are several of them.”
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