The April 2nd Bead Society Program meeting will be held in Culver CIty at the Veterans Memorial Building at 12:30 pm. Our guest speaker is Renée Newman, gemologist and a frequent speaker for our group. The title of her talk is Evolution of Diamond Cuts & Qualities in Jewelry from 1300 until Now. 

The cutting styles and quality of the diamonds in estate and antique jewelry provide important
clues about when it was made. Renée’s PowerPoint will show

• How diamond faceting has evolved over the past 900 years.
• Examples of jewelry in the Renaissance, Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, Art Deco,

Retro and Mid-Century and Modern jewelry periods.

• How the concept of acceptable diamond qualities for fine jewelry has gradually changed.

Industrial-grade rough that was once considered unacceptable for jewelry, is now being
used in high-end designer jewelry while industrial diamond users are now enjoying much
higher qualities of lab-grown diamond in their industrial products.

• How the evolution of diamond cuts and faceting styles has ended up where it began.

Modern diamond rings are now being set with table cuts, rose cuts, old mine cuts and
even uncut octahedrons.

​Come see her slides and insight! 

The Bead Society went to the "Beads of Courage" studio for the SoCal Flame Surfers. It was exciting! The SoCal Flame Surfers support Beads of Courage in making special glass beads that can be given to hospitalized children.  Bead Society member, David Keith was our host. 

Beads of Courage (BoC) is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to improving the quality of life for children and teens coping with serious illness, their families, and the clinicians who care for them through their Arts-in-Medicine Programs. BoC has established collaborative partnerships in caring with hundreds of hospitals nationally and internationally and worked with several community organizations to make healing happen through the use of beads as a historical art form.

After our safety orientation, we were guided in making simple beads by Steve and David. We could add more glass to an initial bead, add dots, or do something else equally creative. We were willing to donate our beads to Beads of Courage, the non profit that David's group works with. After working with making beads, we had a pleasant potluck lunch with David's quiche and interesting conrads.

Here are some pictures from the two days we went to the Studio. 

Here are some videos of making glass beads. ​
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Some pics on So Cal Flame Surfers Facebook page show us hard at work!  The pictures of beads donated even include our little contributions (on the far left). No, the ice cream cones are beyond our skill set! 
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We all felt that we learned a lot about making glass beads. David does this twice a month, so let us know if you are interested. ​