If you’re surprised to find a well-stocked beading store on rural Highway 3A, you’re not the only one.
Laura Kernohan recently overheard a mother and daughter chatting as they left her shop, A’freakan Bead Studio.
“You’re always going to remember getting this bracelet because it was at a lovely little store in a very unexpected place,” the mother told the daughter.
The shop at 16310 Highway 3A is now in its seventh season, offering the materials needed to create necklaces, bracelets and earrings. The shop is full of small containers holding individual beads and semi-precious stones of all colours and shapes.
“A person can come in and get everything they need to make a project,” Kernohan said. “I have a really good selection of hemp in a lot of weights and colours.”
She and her daughter opened the business to create jobs for themselves.
“I’d never done anything artistic before,” Kernohan said with a laugh. “But I’ve had beads since I was a kid.”
But Kernohan, who now runs the business alone, developed her artistic side since opening the shop, and now enjoys making products to sell, her favourite being macramé.
Kernohan’s family has owned property in Crawford Bay since 1968, and vacationed there each summer. She and her husband spent weekends there after they were married, and finally moved to Crawford Bay 18 years ago.
The bead shop is located on land that used to be a strawberry farm, in a 100-year-old cabin (which was later added to, creating a house).
“A woman who was 90 stopped by one day and said, ‘I was born here,’ ” Kernohan recalled.
The shop has become a popular stop for summer campers and cottagers, some of whom visit faithfully each summer.
“The whole family comes in to get a project for the evening, when they’re sitting around the campfire,” said Kernohan.
The shop, which keeps regular hours in the summer, is open all year by appointment, and is a big hit for children’s parties, and not just for girls.
“Some of my best customers are little boys,” Kernohan said. “They’ve got imagination, and they’re not afraid to splash different colours together.”