Cathy Lampole created a little gem in the heart of Newmarket through which her passion for the art of beading lives on.
“She’s still here,” said That Bead Lady store manager Alison Layton of the founder of the gleaming bead store filled with millions of glittering and shining beads of every possible size sizes and type.
While Cathy Lampole died of cancer in February 2016, her husband, Bill, committed to keeping his wife’s legacy alive through her bead store, despite also losing their youngest son, David, to pneumonia that same year in July.
Cathy and Bill met in Toronto when they were both working as buyers at The Bay. They eventually got married and moved to Newmarket in 1987 and started a family.
Cathy had made the decision to stay home to help raise their two sons. Then in 1996, she had the foresight to open an online bead store.
“At that time, (beading) was kind of in its infancy, in terms of becoming a very popular medium to work with,” explained Bill.
Cathy worked from home, where she was able to fulfill her creative dreams with the online store and doing small jewelry shows.
After having great success in the online shopping community, in 2004, she and Bill opened a storefront location in Newmarket that featured many of Cathy’s designs and an array of beads for customers.
Cathy was well known for her needlework designs and the store still sells her patterns to purchase and replicate. She was renowned for her beautiful ornament hanger pieces that were published many times in various trade magazines, including Bead & Button.
“She was really a foundation of beading in Canada,” said Layton.
Layton, who began working alongside Cathy in 2006, has extensive experience studying fashion and design in the United Kingdom. Her jewelry designs have been published in magazines and she is a Swarovski Crystal authorized instructor.
That Bead Lady has become a place where crafters and artisans can come to learn about the art of beading through workshops and classes. Known for their friendly demeanor and exceptional customer service, the store has become a staple in the beading subculture.
“We’re very proud of it,” said Layton.
The shop is bright, white and spacious with Cathy and Layton’s design samples displayed throughout the store. Since Cathy’s passing, the store continues to thrive both online and in the brick-and-mortar shop. With a staff of knowledgeable and certified artisans, the store welcomes newcomers and veteran beaders alike to learn about the art.
“My philosophy is that everybody should have creativity in their world. Even if you’re a busy person, you have to have balance in life and it’s important to carve out some time for yourself and be creative and to have that time to bring the next generations on,” said Layton.
The store itself has thousands upon thousands of beads to choose from for your next art project. From fishermen making fishing lures to the indigenous community creating unique fashions, Layton says the customers who come to the store aren’t just there for jewelry projects.
“It’s quilting, it’s knitting, it’s scrapbooking, it’s whatever you can imagine a bead being used in,” said Layton.
Their online store attracts customers from all over the world, from places as far as Australia and Germany. The shop itself has heavy foot traffic, especially from Southlake Regional Health Centre, which is just down the street on Davis Drive.
“People will often say that it’s been a saving grace to have beads in their world because it acts as a distraction or a therapy,” said Layton of the patients who come to visit the store.
The shop prides itself on offering the highest quality beads, including Miyui glass beads and Swarovski crystals.
“It’s a premium quality rather than a crafting,” said Layton of the store’s inventory, “We are pretty artisan specific.”
Modest and demure Bill keeps himself busy with running the back end of the business — the website, the orders and finances, while Layton deals primarily with the customers.
“I’m working full time but I’m semi-retired. All my work is on the backend … Alison won’t let me talk to the customers,” he said with a laugh.
Both Bill and Layton say it is a labour-intensive business, as 90 per cent of the product they receive needs to be tubed together or bagged.
Layton and Bill are proud of the store and how much it has grown since its humble beginnings. They say although Cathy is not with them physically, her spirit is very much alive in the store.
Before she passed, Cathy had this to say about the business she had built:
“I have to truly thank all of our fabulous customers who have supported us over the years. You have made this simple job of mine into more than a business — it’s my love, it’s my life, and it’s fabulous!”
