PROVIDENCE -- It'll be a sparkling day Sept. 27 for the Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America.

That's when the association will open a two-day trade show in its home city -- the first held here since 2001.

"This is kind of an adventurous step that we're taking here," said Bruce Coltin, the association's trade-show sales manager.

MJSA hosts shows and training sessions for industry members and represents the industry on trade matters and legislative issues. The association represents more than 1,900 jewelry companies around the country.

MJSA is reviving its Providence show five years after it last held one in the city, Coltin said.

The association stopped hosting a show here because the state's jewelry industry had withered away to the point where it wasn't a viable event, Coltin said.

Since then, he said, "That whole landscape changed radically. There's a whole big wave of jewelry-making" since then.

The rise in recent years of beading as a hobby akin to crocheting, gardening, scrap-booking or other American pastimes has given rise to a cadre of crafters who've become new entrepreneurs.

One in three crafters now purchase beads for use in jewelry making, according to the annual Craftrends survey, and is the fastest-growing sector of craft-making among those younger than 35.

A 2004 survey by Interweave Press, a publisher of craft-making magazines, credits baby boomers with more time on their hands and fashion trends for driving interest in this type of jewelry making.

The Interweave survey concluded that more than half of all beaders are entrepreneurs who sell their work out of their homes, on the Internet, and at local boutiques and department stores. Most are sole proprietors.

Beaders can turn out a finished piece faster than someone doing needlepoint, crochet or birdhouses, making it easier to produce enough to create a business out of their hobby, the experts say.

"That's what really makes the beaders different," from other crafters, said Jaime Guthals, an Interweave spokeswoman. "It doesn't take as long to make a craft. You can make a finished necklace in about 30 minutes."

Interest among hobbyists has spurred a rise around the country in the number of bead-making classes and the spread of bead-supply retail shops.

In its 2004 survey, Interweave found about 1,800 independent bead-supply shops in the United States -- with one to two new ones opening each week. Interweave will get an updated picture of the trend late this year, when it completes a new survey of hobbyists, Guthals said.

"All of these people who are making their jewelry don't know where to go" to improve their skills or grow their businesses, Coltin said. "We've unearthed this market."

The MJSA event in Providence is billed as a regional event to serve the jewelry industry in New England, with about 100 exhibitors and 1,000 attendees registered.

At the show, attendees will see the material, equipment, packaging and service offerings they need to design and manufacture jewelry.

The association chose its home city as the trade show site, it said, because of the area's long history as a jewelry manufacturing -- the city was considered the Jewelry Capital of the World. At one time there were 32,500 jewelry workers in the state.

The association, Coltin said, hopes the show will unveil a new market of niche customers for the suppliers among its membership.

For more information about the Trade Show for Jewelry Making, contact the association at (800) 444-6572, or visit www.mjsa.org

pgrimald@projo.com / (401)-277-7356