Exciting News! The October 2nd meeting of the Bead Society will be in person at the Culver City Julian Dixon Library, 4975 Overland Ave, Culver City, CA 90230.  The meeting will be in their community room!  It is the first room off to the left as you walk into the front of the library building. 

The topic is "Member Sharing of Fall and Spooky Crafts".  It's a daytime meeting! 

Please join us at our first gathering of our 50th year as The Bead Society!  We will bring beverages and snacks as we explore our members' spooky Halloween and Fall creative items on display.  Bring your best of Fall colors, jewelry, and Halloween, spiders, bats, etc. beads or finished items to share with the rest of our TBS members.  I know we will be seeing a miniature setting from Niki.  You don't want to miss that!

​Wednesday, October 2, 2024, 2:00 - 4:00 pm
Member Program time: 2:45pm to 4pm
Pre-program Business Meeting:  2pm-2:30pm

Free parking in the back of the library building. Entrance is off of Overland Avenue. 


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​We recently were contacted by Joyce Thursby who wanted to make a donation of her deceased mother-in-law’s beads. It is a large container with mostly seed beads in an array of sizes and colors! 
Joyce's mother in law’s name was Cynthia Thursby. She was the wife of retired Colonel Donald E. Thursby who is also deceased.  Cynthia Thursby was an avid needlework artist who created numerous works of art, no matter if it was yarn, thread or beads, Cynthia always created a beautiful keepsake. Her jewelry is worn by many members of the family and friends. Her granddaughters have enjoyed the fun beaded bags with a hidden treasure she made them and hopefully will hand those down to their daughters.

For our Kick off for the FY2025 meeting, we will have our members present and talk about what they did this summer, What Did you Do Last Summer?  
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Wednesday September 4th, 7 pm Pacific Time
Zoom Meeting ID: 899 883 2615, Passcode: Beads 

Here is some of the information about our presenters:

Angie Carrington has been working on her website, making major updates to the menu and adding additional content. While it's not ready yet, she will share her experiences and challenges with everyone. Maybe it can help someone avoid some headaches.  

Mary Yaeger had an exciting trip to the Czech Republic. She will share some of her adventures with us! 

Lisa Shatts has been working on ideas for celebrating our 50th anniversary. She will highlight the website that we created for Membership Shopping! She will also talk about our trip to the Bead Society of Orange County to hear Robert Liu's talk! 

The Bead Society members helped out at the Fiesta of Gems in late June! This summer Kay Deeney along with some busy members have been helping mark and price some of the Bead Shack. Sylvia H. gratiously offered her home for us to have a garage Bead Sale! We had one in April and again in August. They were very successful! Kay will fill in more details at the meeting! 

Join us! Everyone is welcome! 

Bead Society business meeting is at 6:30 pm PT at the same Zoom address! 

The Bead Society participated in the Culver City Rock & Mineral Club's Fiesta of Gems on June 29th and 30th, 2024. We have had a table other years, but this time we brought beads to sell! It was exciting!

The beads and jewelry come from donations from the families of Bead Society members and others. We have used the beads in classes, donated them to various groups and have sold some at our Pop Ups and other shows. 

The June Program meeting of the Bead Society will focus on the videos of the World on a String DVD series created by Diana Friedberg with support from the Bead Society. The videos are all available now on YouTube! We will be viewing selected parts of Volume One, The Eternal Bead and discussing some of the interesting observations.  

Your assignment is to view Part One: The Eternal Bead. It is 93 minutes long. You can go to the transcript and select parts you want to view, such as Venetian Bead Production at 49:55 minutes, or Roman Face Beads at 33:33 minutes into the video. You can also speed up the video through the settings in YouTube if you want to save time.  The URL is https://youtu.be/MUSGl0oI4Js.

In 2004 The Bead Society made bead history with the screening of Diana Friedberg's documentary World on a String at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The first part of this five-part series, The Eternal Bead, was shown to an invited audience of more than 500 people. Diana Friedberg's idea became a reality with a generous grant from the Bead Society. The history of Beads is very important to the Bead Society!  

Join us on Zoom!  Come even if you haven't been able to see all of the video. All are welcome! 

Wednesday June 5th, 7 pm Pacific Time
Zoom Meeting ID: 899 883 2615, Passcode: Beads 
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​Bead Society business meeting is at 6:30 pm PT at the same Zoom address! ​Elections will take place at this meeting! 

Spring is finally here in Southern California! What inspires you in your jewelry making or beadwork? Flowers, poppies, bees, greening of landscapes, birds, bugs? Artists have drawn upon the imagery of spring to convey profound truths about the human condition and the interconnectedness of all living things.* Contemporary artists often use spring symbolism as a metaphor for personal transformation and collective renewal. Bring a piece of your artwork, jewelry or beadwork that is inspired by Spring! Tell us about it! This will be a sharing session. 

Wednesday May 1st, 7 pm Pacific Time
Zoom Meeting ID: 899 883 2615, Passcode: Beads 
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Join us on Zoom!  All are welcome! ​​
​Bead Society business meeting is at 6:30 pm PT at the same Zoom address! ​

Just a reminder: our Bead Society Pop Up is Saturday, May 4th from 10 am to 4 pm at the Veterans Memorial Complex. We are taking over the Rotunda and Lobby with over 20 vendors. See the Pop Up page at this website for pictures of some of our vendors' offerings! 

*Renewal and Rebirth: Symbolism of Spring in Art History
Posted by / Pinot's Palette Federal Way. Date Posted / 04-01-2024 

​Spring Clean of your Bead Collection: How to organize and De-Stash your beads! 
With Josephine with Settara Stones

Think about the benefit of organizing the beads now to make it easier for you and your loved ones later. For the past 25 years Josephine has collected beads and made jewelry with them. About 8 years ago she had her first experience with selling a huge bead collection. She learned a lot in 8 years about how to prepare your collection to be de-stashed.  "I think what I love about this whole process is the idea of recycling beads back into the world where people can be inspired to use them and not feel like they have to buy new manufactured beads. But use what's already here, and maybe be more sustainable. There is a process to taking a bead collection and getting to the point where you can put it on a table to sell it. That is what I hope to share with you all in April!"

Join us on Zoom!  All are welcome! 

Wednesday April 3rd, 7 pm Pacific Time
Zoom Meeting ID: 899 883 2615, Passcode: Beads 
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​Bead Society business meeting at 6:30 pm PT at the same Zoom address! ​

The March 6th online program meeting of the Bead Society will feature Terry Henry talking about Copper Electroforming. Terry teaches online classes on this technique. She will share the amazing possibilities for working with electroforming. She'll talk about using electroforming and how she uses in her work.

From her bio, Terry's early career was as a geologist and hydrologist. "The science of art continues to inspire my glass and metal-formed art pieces." Terry spoke last year to our group about working with glass and flamethrowing.  Join us for another intereting adventure into electroforming. 


Wednesday Mar 6th, 7 pm Pacific Time
Zoom Meeting ID: 899 883 2615, Passcode: Beads 
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All are welcome! 
​Bead Society business meeting at 6:30 pm PT at the same Zoom address! ​

For our February 7th Program meeting, we are focusing on Ethnic Jewelry and Beads. It will be a sharing session. 

As mentioned in the book, Ethnic Jewelry (1), edited by John Mack, "the color and exuberance of ethnic jewelry have always attracted collectors and travelers." African beadwork, American Indian silver and turquoise, jade from the Far East, and shellwork from the Pacific are just some of the varieties of "gorgeous jewelry". 

How has your collecting or creating of jewelry been influenced by ethnic jewelry? Think about it! Bring some examples of your ethnic jewelry to the meeting. 

Dona Z. Meilach, author of Ethnic Jewelry: Design & Inspiration for Collectors & Craftsmen (2) refers to ethnic jewelry as an "intercontinental jewelry buffet." Ethnic Jewelry includes tribal jewelry, ritual items, and more. It does not include faddish designs such as Native American jewelry sold at roadside stands but made in other countries where there is cheap labor. 

In many cultures, jewelry communicates messages of "love, hate, power, hierarchy, aggression, pride, birth, growing up, maleness, femaleness and more." What does that mean to you? When you see celebrities on the red carpet with their jewels, do you think of this? 

Come join us for an interesting discussion and sharing of Ethnic Jewelry and Beads! 

Wednesday  February 7th, 7 pm Pacific Time
Zoom Meeting ID: 899 883 2615, Passcode: Beads 
All are welcome! ​Join us! 
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Business meeting at 6:30 pm PT at the same Zoom address! ​​

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1. Mack, John ed., Ethnic Jewelry. Harry N, Abrams Publishers: New York, 1988. [Bead Society has three copies of this book.]
2. Meilach, Dona Z. Ethnic Jewelry: Design & Inspiration for Collectors & Craftsmen. Crown Publishers: New York, 1981.
​Pictures courtesy of our Pop Up vendors. 

Tony Todaro, husband of member, Lillian Todaro passed away in December. Tony was our first webmaster bringing the Society into the Internet Age! Tony was a frequent presence at the Pop Ups and Bazaars as he accompanied Lillian with her beautiful jewelry creations and beads. Tony also came to our meetings at the Veterans Memorial Complex when Lillian was VP to help bring the equipment we needed for the programs. 

Tony was Co-founder with Lillian of the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society. He was also President of that group. 

He will be sorely missed. You can get in touch with Lillian at her email address.

Picture and some text courtesy of the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society and Lillian T. ​