Before it was "The Bead Shop," Georgia Wilson's family store sold ceramics and pottery in a small storefront near Whole Foods on Magazine Street. Bead Shop employees sort through a new order of beads.

He would only purchase quality jewelry to sell." Pictures of the van der Veen Jewelers founder show a tall, lanky man with white hair beaming in a bluish-gray blazer over a button-up and blue jeans.

In October 2007, California native Erin Comyns opened this Boerum Hill bead shop, the first in New York City where crafters can make their own creations in store. The bright-yellow corner storefront ...