​The Upper Midwest Bead Society (UMBS), TOHO Beads, The Japanese Beading Association, TeamTOHO, and Lotus Beads and Jewelry are joining forces to take the TOHO Peace Chain Project to new lengths by actually connecting them together and creating the longest beaded Peace Chain in the world!  UMBS is inviting us to participate! 

"There are many ways you can join our Peace Chain Project. We have a one-year goal. We would like everyone around the world to gather together friends, family, and new and old acquaintances to join us in this monumental effort by working together to make a one-mile-long beaded Peace Chain with the goal of promoting peace."

"We hope you will think peaceful thoughts as you enjoy making these rings, thereby infusing the rings themselves with calm and happy feelings."

"Your segments of chain will be connected to ours throughout the year to create 1 mile of chain. This chain will stretch all the way around the Mall of America! We invite you to come from all over the world to the Mall of America on August 6th, 2026, to bring segments of your Peace Chain with you and join us to commemorate the Day of Peace for a "Grand Connection." During this event, we will connect all of the remaining Peace Chain segments together."

So, the Bead Society is proposing that we have some Beading gatherings where we can work on the Peace Rings. Each ring is very small, and doesn't use a lot of beads. The directions are fairly straightforward. You don't need to know any elaborate stitches. There is even a YouTube video. The Bead Society has lots of colors of seed beads we can employ. If you are interested, you can contact Kay at kayd at beadsocietyla.org.  If you would like to host one of these events, let us know. 

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. 

The Bead Society sponsored two field trips in September to the Bowers Museum and the Broad Museum. The group went to the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana to The Bead Society of OC - Bead Sale in the outside courtyard and to the exhibit, World of the Terracotta Warriors at the Museum. World of the Terracotta Warriors comprises over 110 newly uncovered treasures including Terracotta Warriors, chariot regalia, jade and gold adornments, bronze vessels, and immersive digital experiences. In a landmark collaboration with the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and esteemed museums and archaeological institutions across Shaanxi Province, These artifacts make their North American debut, offering audiences unprecedented glimpses into China before and during the Qin dynasty. Below are some pictures from the exhibit taken by attendees. 

In addition, several Bead Society members went to the Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles to see the exquisite works of Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me. These sculptures were stunning with intricate beadwork. The colors were so vibrant!  According to the Museum,  Gibson's artwork are "all reflecting the artist’s radical vision for a future in which all people are seen, accepted, and loved."  The show came to The Broad directly from the 60th Venice Biennale (2024), one of the most prestigious exhibitions of visual art in the world, where Gibson made history as the first Indigenous artist to represent the USA with a solo show. The exhibit has moved on, but for more information you can click on this link from the Broad Museum.  The video installation of She Never Dances Alone is also available on the website. 

And here are some photographs from members of the Bead Society on this marvelous work. ​

The Bead Society regularly hosts field trips to various museums and events. There are plans to visit the Autry Museum in November. 

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! 

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! 

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

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. ​