A husband-and-wife team based in Brooklyn, Billie Tannen and Bob Nielsen met in New York in the early 1980s. They had both studied art and received BFAs, Tannen’s in Drawing and Sculpture and Nielsen’s in Drawing and Painting. Tannen had rediscovered the polymer clay she had used as a child, and she introduced the medium to Nielsen, who began making beads inspired by her collection of African trade beads, Venetian glass, and Mardi Gras beads. Eventually, the two quit their day jobs and named their new company “Billie Beads.” After many years of practice, they still experience the pleasure of working with myriad shapes, forms, colors, and combinations of patterns, along with the joy and inspiration their work brings to others.
