Moms find their niche with beaded fashions

Necessity, the mother of invention, at work in 2003: Fashionable young women wear jeans so low-slung that a band of underwear shows above the back belt line.

Sensing opportunity, two south-Reno entrepreneurs expand their line of handmade jewelry to include thong-style underwear in which strings of beads replace the back strap.

And they're making money at it at least enough that they can stay home with their young children and don't need to find a paycheck outside the home.

Aphrodite Divine Jewelry and Gifts, the company launched by Adriana Bain and Mesha Bosco, doesn't cast a long shadow.

Its inventory of raw material about $1,000 worth of beads and some related supplies fits nicely into one of those plastic tubs the discount houses sell for $7.

Almost every weeknight after the kids are in bed, Bosco heads over to Bain's house in a Double Diamond neighborhood.

They pull up chairs at the dining room table and work from 9 p.m.

to 1 a.m.

or so before sleeping a few hours to awaken with their children.

And almost every weekend, they take their completed inventory to a hostess party.

The hostess gets merchandise equal to 20 percent of the revenues generated by the party, and that revenue has grown sharply since the introduction of the beaded thongs.

"It's been like a wildfire," Bain said a few days ago.

Two Reno stores have begun selling the line, along with a line of Aphrodite tank tops in which beads replace the straps, and Bosco and Bain are developing relationships with wholesalers to carry the apparel.

Not bad for two women who started making jewelry because they thought they could do a better job than the makers of the costume jewelry they saw in stores.

Friends since their middle-school days in Fernley, so close that they routinely finish sentences for one another, Bain and Bosco didn't want to find jobs away from their young children.

"We don't want to put our kids in daycare," said Bain.

They began buying costume jewelry at wholesale and selling through home parties.

Late last year, they began augmenting the jewelry they purchased with their own creations.

The apparel was added to the line this spring.

Despite the strong sales of the beaded thong, Bosco said the duo is keeping a cool head.

"We want to keep level-headed about this," she said.

"We're not being too grandiose in our planning."

At the same time, Bosco added, she and Bain are intent on growing their modest business into something that can sustain itself.

"It's not a hobby for us," she said.

"Hobbies cost money."