Since its founding in 1997, The Bead Project has helped nearly 200 women toward greater financial stability. The Bead Project is a program designed for economically disadvantaged women interested in learning a new creative skill they can use to supplement their income. It emphasizes self-sufficiency through a mastery of glass beadmaking and silver jewelry making techniques. The Bead Project curriculum includes 40 hours of glass beadmaking instruction and 10 hours of jewelry making techniques. Through a partnership with CAMBA, small business courses are included in the curriculum, covering How to Start a Business, How to Write a Business Plan, Marketing, Tax Preparation, Credit Repair and Money Management. Maximum enrollment for each Bead Project session is nine students. Ongoing advocacy is provided to graduates by The Bead Project and UrbanGlass. Alumni receive monthly newsletters, beadmaking practice sessions or Open Torch sessions, lectures, exhibitions, demonstrations, and networking, selling and teaching opportunities, as well as the constant help and support provided by fellow graduates. After a successful completion of The Bead Project curriculum, each student receives their own torch and tool kit for use at home.

All aspects of glass beadmaking are covered, including an overview of the equipment and tools; safety procedures for working with hot glass; a brief history and survey of bead types and styles; resources for purchasing glass and other beadmaking supplies; bead jewelry making; and information on marketing, pricing and selling beads and bead jewelry. Complementary small business courses have been added to the curriculum to ensure the success of all Bead Project graduates and alumni. For more information on the business courses, please log onto www.camba.org.

How Can Students Use These Skills?

Glass beads made their first appearance in 30,000 B.C. Evidence of the regard for glass beads as collectible items and as jewelry is abundant throughout history, and, to this day, there are many opportunities to sell and showcase glass bead jewelry. Through shows, markets, street fairs, galleries, stores, and the internet, there are infinite possibilities for glass bead artists to create income exhibiting and selling their work. Members of The Bead Project have the opportunity each year to participate in the UrbanGlass Annual Glass Bead Expo, which includes top international glass beadmakers and instructors. This is an invaluable learning experience for The Bead Project Women: exhibiting and selling their beads and jewelry, receiving feedback, all while working alongside the country’s leading glass beadmakers.

Other opportunities have developed for The Bead Project thanks to media exposure. The Bead Project has been featured in local newspapers as well as Bead and Button Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, GLASS Quarterly, The Craft Report, Lapidary Journal and on television news programs, including New York One, CNN Financial News and Style with B. Smith. Graduates receive orders from designers who wish to commission specific styles of beads and jewelry. A graduate in the program with the appropriate skill level will execute the commission while using the business skills taught learned through the program. Each transaction requires the understanding of price negotiation and a time table for the project’s completion. Bead Project graduates teach and assist classes at UrbanGlass. Several have gone on to teach at other facilities, such as the Boys & Girls Club of Newark, NJ; the Newark Museum of Art, NJ; Peters Valley, NJ; Penland School of Crafts, NC; and also give private lessons. The women have also participated in sales and fundraisers featured at UrbanGlass, including The Glassblowers Ball.

Encouraging Entrepreneurship

The Bead Project aims to give women not only a means of self-expression and creative outlet, but a way to change their lives. In addition to the UrbanGlass Bead Expo, some of the graduates have organized booths at other venues such as the Whole Bead Show and Dance Africa at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The goal of The Bead Project is to encourage its graduates to take charge of their lives and, ultimately, become financially self-sufficient.