At ten years old, a girl sat down with a handful of beads. Nobody told her that one day this thread would lead her into the pages of Guinness World Records. She was simply stringing them because she loved it.
That girl is Syeda Anisa Murshed. On 25 July this year, at SC Club Limited in Dhaka, she made 57 beaded bracelets in a single hour. It is her second Guinness World Record.
What the numbers say
The category is “Most beaded bracelets made in one hour.” The previous record was 40, and Anisa beat it by 17. There is a catch: only fully finished bracelets counted, not half-strung ones. That works out to roughly one complete piece of jewellery every minute, with the clock running the whole time. The years of skill behind it can’t be measured in numbers.
The first record came on her birthday
Her first record was set on 12 August 2022, her own birthday. In one hour she strung 1,671 beads into a thread 42.3 metres long, against a previous record of 32.7 metres, a margin of nearly 10 metres. Then came the long wait of submitting evidence and having it reviewed. Guinness confirmed the record officially on 1 November 2022.
A Guinness record is never just one day’s effort. It means months of preparation, video and witness evidence, and patience. Anisa has now walked that road twice, and neither of her records has been broken yet.
A corporate desk and a box of beads
Anisa has another identity: she is a marketing and communications specialist with more than 12 years of experience at leading consumer goods and e-commerce companies. Between deadlines and meetings, many people let their hobbies slip away. Anisa didn’t. In 2021 she started “Hey AniSay,” a passion project that presents bead art through a fresh, modern lens.
Keeping a hobby alive doesn’t take a grand plan. It takes a little space and the stubbornness to keep coming back to it.
Bigger than the record
Anisa doesn’t see this achievement as hers alone. Her point is that Bangladesh’s beadwork and handicrafts carry generations of skill, yet much of it never travels beyond local markets. She wants this record to bring that work into the light, and to encourage marginalised artisans, whose talent often goes unseen, to take pride in their craft and show it to the world.
We often assume that conquering the world takes a big stage and big money. Anisa shows that a thread and some beads can be enough, if twenty years of love stand behind them.
Maybe there’s a hobby sitting in the corner of your drawer, one you pushed aside thinking, “What’s the use of it now?” Anisa’s story says it’s worth taking out and looking at again.
