 Collectible Beads, by Robert K. Liu The January 7th TBS Program Meeting will feature Margie Akin talking about Collecting from an Anthropologist's Point of View. Margie has an extensive background in teaching at UC Riverside, CSU San Bernadino and the University of Redlands. Margie is a Cultural and Linguistic Services Specialist.
The event will be in person, and on Zoom. We will be meeting in the Uruapan room of the Veterans Memorial Building at 7:00 pm PT. Zoom information is Meeting ID: 899 883 2615, Passcode: Beads. Beads have been collected since women and men walked the earth. "Beads were probably the first durable ornaments humans possessed ... " * TBS Business meeting at 6:30 pm. Join us! *Liu, Robert K, Foreword, The History of Beads: from 100,000 B.C. to the Present. Dubin, Lois Sherr. Abrams: New York, rev ed., 2009,
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Pow wows are a great place to find seed beads and see wonderful beaded workmanship! Pow wows are gatherings of Native American tribes to celebrate and honor native cultures and traditions. They are a social event that usually features a variety of dances, songs and vendors. Here's info on an upcoming one at CSUN in Northridge on November 29, 2025.  Here's a link to the Press Release from California State University, Northridge.
To find other Pow wow events, you can try searching the Pow Wows Calendar from PowWows.com. The website for Calexplornia has lists of California Pow Wows. Unfortunately, it may not be as timely as one wants. Another website specifically for California is NewsfromNativeCalifornia. It is broader than just Pow wows. For example, there is some interesting information about rock art locations in California. In addition, another website on Southern California Pow wows comes from the San Manual Pow Wow and is linked here. If you know of other websites that have useful Pow wow information, let us know in the Comments.  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. 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!  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!  Lucille Ball 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!  Chris and Rod Miyata 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 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
used in high-end designer jewelry while industrial diamond users are now enjoying much higher qualities of lab-grown diamond in their industrial products.
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.
 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!
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. |
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