The Bead Society Cultural Arts and Bead Show was held on November 1st at the auditorium of the Veterans Memorial Complex in Culver City. In addition to beads and finished jewelry, we also had pottery, clothing, photography and exquisite origami objects. See the pictures! The attendance was good, both vendors and attendees expressed their pleasure. In addition, the Bead Society Booth filled four tables with beads, supplies and jewelry and made a decent return. We even acquired some donations from some of the attendees. We offered  complementary giftwrapping at this event. We had paper, ribbon, bows. Some people event decorated gift cards. We had demonstrations by Deidre Green and Janice Metz. 
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Here are some pictures of the event. We even included some before shots, so you can see how the auditorium transformed! 

The Bead Society is very grateful to our volunteers who helped out at the Bead Shack Table, the Membership Table, and at the various Demo tables. And of course, the Bazaar/Pop Up Committee headed by Sylvia Humphrey deserves a lot of credit. Raul Soliz, our helper and his daughter, Bianca were very helpful! 

Beadmaking in Glass, a World of Techniques

The diversity of glass techniques that are used to create beads is much bigger than often thought.  Pretty much every glass technique you can think of, has also been applied to beadmaking. Lampwork beads, furnace wound beads, drawn beads, molded beads, coldworked beads, blown beads: there are many ways to make a bead. In this presentation, we will travel around the world to see, for example, beads made at a wood fired furnace, seed bead production in India, lampworking in Indonesia and the making of molded beads in the Czech Republic. You will never look at a glass bead the same again!

Floor Kaspers is our speaker, all the way from the Netherlands via Zoom! Join the Bead Society in person at the Veterans Memorial Complex in the Uruapan room or via Zoom. 

November 5th, 7 pm Pacific Time

Meeting ID: 899 883 2615
Passcode: Beads

Business meeting at 6:30 pm.  Join us! 

The October 2nd Bead Society Program Meeting will be held via Zoom at 7 pm on Symbolism in Global Jewelry. Note that this meeting is a Thursday, not our usual Wednesday meeting time. 

Thursday, Oct 2nd, 2025 6:30 PM Pacific Time
(Program at 7 pm, Business meeting at 6:30 pm. )
Meeting ID: 899 883 2615
Passcode: Beads
               
We are in for a great treat for the October 2, meeting, with Sindi Schloss, gemologist, appraiser and educator, talking about Symbolism in Global Jewelry.  Sindi is a return speaker for our group, she is very knowledgeable, lively and entertaining. As Sindi will share with us, “symbolic thought defines us as 'modern man'. Jewelry is one of the first indicators and examples of symbolic thought and predates rock art by 90,000 years!”  This presentation will examine primary symbols witnessed by early humans and translated into jewelry as wearable symbols. Not only will this presentation expand your worldview, but give you a greater appreciation and ability to interpret purpose and meaning of jewelry.
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The September Meeting of the Bead Society is the first meeting of our fiscal year which started July 1. We are going to focus on what we did this summer. Ideally, what we made! We also had successful events at the Fiesta of Gems sponsored by CCRMC, and the Pop Up of the Whole Bead Show. It will be a sharing session, so members and attendees are encouraged to participate. You can share what you made or send pictures to Kay who will put them together into a slideshow. So come to the meeting and show us What you Made this Summer! 

​The meeting will be held on Zoom. 

Bead Society Meeting & Program!
Wednesday, Sep 3, 2025 6:30 PM Pacific Time (Program at 7 pm, Business meeting at 6:30 pm. )
Meeting ID: 899 883 2615
Passcode: Beads

All are welcome! 

Lisa S, President and Kay D, Webmaster and Bead Shack host of the Bead Society hosted a table at the Sandbourne Santa Monica Hotel for the one day Pop-Up Whole Bead Show. We were graciously invited by Ava Motherwell of the Whole Bead Show. We were able to recruit some new members, and chat with lots of interesting people. We were also able to promote The Bead Society Cultural Arts and Bead Show! in November.   

The Show had some interesting beads such as black diamonds, lots of gemstones,  and German and Italian polyresin beads. There were also lots of pendants and interesting bone beads. Ava of the Whole Bead Show was off to San Diego after our show. 

The Fiesta of Gems hosted by the Culver City Rock and Mineral Club was June 28-29, 2025. The Bead Society had a presence there. We had two tables filled with beads, jewelry and findings at discount prices.  We enjoy participating in this show because the people who attend are very interesting. There is a lot of overlap between people who hunt for gemstones and people who make jewelry with them. 
 
Various Bead Society volunteers such as Angie C, Sylvia H, Bridgette W, Carmen L, Diedre G, David K and Nikki D helped out at the show. We demonstrated basic bead design for making a necklace with Lisa S, Bead Society President, and Kumihimo with Kay D. We had sample projects for popular bead weaving stitches We also answered questions about bead stringing, supplies, and classes.

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. We look forward to next year's show! 

A big change! The June Progam Meeting of the Bead Society will  be on Zoom! It will focus on Fabulous Fashions in the Movies! It is Wednesday, June 4th at 7 pm,  (It had been scheduled for in person during the day.)

The Lecture is titled “A Look at Fabulous Fashions in the Movies.” Greg Schreiner will share stories from his collection of over 500 movie costumes. Among the stars he will be talking about are Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, Julie Andrews and Susan Hayward. Greg did this talk to an audience of 150 in Chicago recently. He has spoken to our group before, and shared beautiful costumes for our amazement! Many of the costumes have intricate beaded patterns, an art that may be disappearing! 

Bead Society Meeting & Program!
Wednesday June 4th, 7:00 pm 
Join Zoom Meeting:

Meeting ID: 899 883 2615
Passcode: Beads

Business meeting at 6:30 pm.  Join us! 

Speaker had to cancel. He will be back in the fall.  

Cancelled! 

The May Bead Society Program Meeting will be rescheduled on Zoom. Our speaker is Rod Miyata of Ace of Diamonds in Culver City. ​Mr. Miyata will talk on Custom Jewelry Manufacturing and will present a slide show to inform our members of the processes. He is also tempting us with some items, such as earrings, that he will have for a raffle. Join us! 

Rod is a gemologist who along with his wife, Chris run the Ace of Diamonds jewelry store in Culver City. They are dealers of Fine Jewelry and Custom Design Manufacturing, provide expert jewelry appraisals and repairs and are members of the prestigious American Gem Society.​



The Bead Society Business meeting is at 6:30 pm PT at the same Zoom address!  Elections will be held! Members, be there to vote! 

The Bead Society was recently approached by Sage Phillips with the Makwa Studio about the Hospital Gown Project-- a community-based collaborative beaded artwork. They are currently seeking remote & in-person contributions of blue brick-stitch bead swatches! Remote swatches have a deadline to be sent by April 30th.

"It would be lovely if you could share this information and opportunity among your organization, students, friends, loved ones, or to anybody who would be interested! We invite anyone who has been impacted by alcoholism within their families or by their loved ones to join us in the creation of a new work titled “Hospital Gowns”. 

These will be exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe NM in July 2025.  Any sales of work will have a portion donated to the Minneapolis organization, Southside Harm Reduction. 

Swatches can vary in size and vary in shades of blue (as long as they are blue!) We ask that the swatch is no bigger than 4 inches on either side. They can even be as small as .5" x .5" -- any size within 4 inches is great! Please make sure they are constructed using the brick-stitch beading technique!

Swatches can be mailed to the following address:

Makwa Studio
1500 Jackson St NE
Studio #238
Minneapolis, MN, 55413

Makwa Studio is so excited to see the contributions! Please don't hesitate to reach out with questions, or for more information about the project and how to be involved.

Thank you,

Sage Phillips | [email protected] | they/she | www.makwastudio.com