Save the Bead Museum

The Bead Museum in Arizona is in danger of closing after 23 years. The Bead Museum in DC has already closed. The Arizona museum is the only one we have left. Who knows, maybe someday your beadwork, mine, or beadwork from someone else we know will end up in this museum. We need to do what we can now to keep this museum open. The Bead Museum is in jeopardy of closing its doors at the end of May.

We are in the process of a $200,000 sustainability campaign but need to raise $100,000 of that goal by April 30th. This funding is needed to allow
us time so that we can continue our fund development plan to insure the long
term financial health of the Museum. Read more about what The Bead Museum offers and their situation on The Bead Museum's website.

Interweave has decided to help by making it easy and quick for everyone to make a $5 donation to help keep the museum doors open. It's just 5 bucks, the cost of a Starbucks coffee. I'm unemployed and I did it. You can too. Donate now.

If you are interested in making a larger contribution, please contact The Bead Museum directly.

Gemstone Beaded Bead Auction #2

As you all know, I created two of these gemstone beaded beads to be auctioned off for Bead Aide. The first was already auctioned off. The second was to be temporarily strung with everyone elses second beaded bead and auctioned off as a whole "set". I'm not sure why, but the beads are all being auctioned off individually. My second gemstone beaded bead is now up for auction. So if you missed out on it the first time around, here's your second chance. 100% of the proceeds goes to help a fellow beader with cancer.


Gemstone Beaded Bead Auction - Bidding is closed. Final auction price was $8.00.

View all Bead Aide items being auctioned

Beaded Bead Auction Open Closed

The bidding on this beautiful gemstone beaded bead has begun ended! 100% of the final price goes into the BeadAide charity fund. The Gemstone Beaded Bead sold for $13.63. Thanks for bidding!

If you are interested in having a bead like this for yourself and you missed the auction, don't worry, I can always make more. Send an email to anne@kinteraarts.com

To read my previous entry for details about this bead, go to http://snipurl.com/1bp7s

To bid see bidding on this bead, go to http://snipurl.com/1bp6q

To see all items currently being auctioned for BeadAide, go to http://snipurl.com/1bp6n

Bead It Forward

I finally finished my two butterflies for Bead It Forward. Each year the Beady Shenanigans yahoo group asks beaders to create a small square that will become part of a large beaded quilt auctioned off for the Bead Artists Against Breast Cancer project. Each one is one and one half inches square.

Beaders Provide Water to Villages in Africa

I just found an article about a group of women in Miami that are helping villages in Africa to drill wells so they can have fresh water. These villages currently have no water source. The women of these villages walk about about 4 miles to get to water (often dirty, disease filled water) and carry about 44 pounds of it back to their families each day. These villages can easily have fresh water by drilling wells, which cost about $3000 each. Unfortunately, the villages cannot afford that. So a group of women in Miami came up with a plan. They learned to bead, designed just two styles of earrings and sell those two styles, donating all the money to purchase wells for these villages. So far they've raised enough to provide safe water to two villages in Africa. Click on the title of this post to see the full article.

Bead Aide Beaded Bead

I've created a beaded bead (that's a bead made by weaving smaller beads together) to donate to the Bead Aide auction. I actually made two of these beads. One will be auctioned off as a single bead. The other will be auctioned as part of a strand of beaded beads made by the various artists that donated beaded beads to this cause.

Bidding on this beautiful gemstone beaded bead has ended! The winning bid on the bead was $13.63!

Bead Aide is a fund created to help beaders in need. Items are auctioned off on ebay and all proceeds go into the fund. The most recent recipient was a cancer patient that needed money to start on an experimental treatment because the normal treatments weren't working for her. Unfortuately she passed away before the new treatment was started, so the fund was used for her funeral expenses instead.

The bead I've created is constructed from czech 11/0 purple lined blue beads and citrine aquamarine semi-precious gemstone chips. The base is a peyote tube encrusted with the chip beads. This beaded bead is approximately one inch long. According to the color trend forcasts this bead will be in style from spring/summer of this year all the way through winter and into spring/summer of next year.

If you missed out on the bidding for this beautiful gemstone beaded bead don't worry, I can make more. Just send an email to anne@kinteraarts.com to tell me you're interested in one.

Stone lore for the two stones in this bead:

Citrine

• The gemstone Citrine is the official birthstone for the month of November.


• It is also the Planetary stone for the Sun Sign of Virgo.


• Citrine is the accepted gem for the 13th and 17th wedding anniversary.


• Citrine has also been said to ward off poison such as snake bites.


• Citrine is known as the "success stone" because it promotes success, prosperity, and abundance.


• It particularly promotes success in business, earning it's other nickname, "merchant's stone".

Aquamarine

• The gemstone Aquamarine is the modern March birthstone.


• It is also the birth stone for the Zodiac sign of Scorpio.


• Aquamarine helps husbands and wives work out their differences to ensure a long and happy marriage, making it a good anniversary gift. Aquamarine is suggested as a gem to give on the 16th and 19th wedding anniversaries.


• Aquamarine is to endow the wearer with foresight, courage, and happiness.


• It is said to increase intelligence and make one youthful.


• As a healing stone, it is said to be effective as a treatment for anxiety.


• Legends say that it is the treasure of mermaids, with the power to keep us safe at sea.

Jeep Rally Uses Beads to Raise Money for Food Bank

This Saturday is the third annual Topless Jeep Poker/Bead Rally in New Mexico. Going topless means taking the top off the Jeep Wranglers. They then drive the Jeeps through the towns of Portales and Clovis, collecting poker cards and beads at specified stops along the way for a total of seven cards and eight beads. At the finish, the Jeep with the best poker hand winds. The beads are strung into a Mardi-Gras style necklace for the participants to keep. The main goal of this rally is to raise money for the Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico.