I left college to manage a friend's bead store. She was a glass worker who loved anything glass and contemporary, while I favored ancient beads, tribal jewelry, stones. I taught others how to make jewelry. When she sold the business, I moved on to other pursuits.
Throughout my 20's, I traveled on shoestrings, made jewelry, drew portraits of kids for whom I babysat, painted backdrops for a photographer, and taught ESL in France.
I began working for Rhona Hirschowitz in 1999, when The Pear Tree was a large store with indigenous arts and crafts from around the world, a store I'd frequented for years. Beads and their uses in different cultures fascinate me. When Rhona began preparing for the closing of her store, I went on a trip around the globe and returned to help with the closing, and simultaneously was offered a job care-taking a small island in Penobscot Bay, Maine. Having just returned from bicycling around northern Laos it was ideal; I'd live in a solar-powered cabin, write about my trip, look after sheep.
The Pear Tree was back, as a bead store, at 111 Marion in 2003. I knew I needed to be here, above all else, and turned down the island job to pursue ownership of the store. Rhona and Ralph graciously helped me take on the role.
On March 1, 2007 I moved The Pear Tree to its current location at 1298 Beacon St. It's great to be back in the heart of Coolidge Corner.
The Pear Tree
Tania Kurkaa
1298 Beacon St.
Brookline, MA
02446
617-277-9330
www.thepeartreeofbrookline.com
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