The Symposium
April 14-15, 2007

Saturday's Lectures | Sunday's Lectures | Other Events | Meet the Organizers

With Bead Expo 2007, Interweave Press continues a tradition begun in 1992 by Recursos de Santa Fe and the Center for Bead Research of the presentation of scholarly lectures of interest to bead and beadwork collectors, students, and creators. This year the two-day symposium is organized by Alice Scherer of the Center for the Study of Beadwork, with further related activities organized by Karlis Karklins of the Society of Bead Researchers.

Beaded Bags and Containers Worldwide

How Various Cultures Express Their Love of Beads in the Objects Closest to Them

Our series of four lectures focuses on a variety of beaded bag and container forms from throughout Asia and the Upper Midwest, from Europe, and from modern-day Japan.

Breakout Sessions
Afternoon sessions allow participants to discuss the morning’s topics at greater length with the speakers. Attendees are encouraged to bring relevant pieces or topics to discuss. Speakers will also sign their books at afternoon sessions.

From Spectacle Cases to Tobacco Pouches

Asian Beaded Bags and Containers

Ms. Hector will present a glorious variety of beaded bags and containers made in the Asian hemisphere in the last thousand years, including scent bags, tobacco pouches, bottles used to scatter rose water during weddings, and baskets that held ritual offerings at funerals. She will discuss the aesthetics, techniques, and meanings of each piece, and the cultures in which they were made.

Photo by Michael Delott.

Ms. Hector has published extensively in industry magazines including Surface Design Journal, Lapidary Journal, and Beadwork. Her work has been covered in various magazines as well, including American Craft.

Ceremonial beaded betel bag shows a lion motif of European derivation. Made on the Indonesian island of Sumba in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Private collection.

Beading for Pleasure in Japan

Popular Beadwork in Japan Over the Last Twenty Years

Mrs. Katsuoka will discuss the origin and development of the Miyuki Company's well-known Delica beads, much used in loomwork bags and purses, and the establishment of the Delica Bead Weaving Association more than twenty years ago. She will also speak about the popularity of the bead craft in Japan. Photo courtesy of the Miyuki Co., Ltd. .

Sunday, April 15 - Presentations

The Ojibwe Bandolier Bag: A Bag Worth a Pony

Ms. Anderson presents a portion of the Minnesota Historical Society's well-known American Indian material culture holdings - its collection of bandolier bags.

In the late nineteenth century, a bandolier bag could transform an American Indian man's "uniform" of dark pants and shirt into a stunning tapestry that exemplified unity, self-expression, and pride.  

These particular bags, made primarily by the Ojibwe of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Canada, are believed to comprise the nation's premier collection. The Society's holdings of over 100 bags illustrates the evolution of status, style, design, and pattern acculturation, as well as Ojibwe women's craft traditions.

The strength of the collection lies with its quality, as well as its extraordinary provenance, as the objects were associated with military personnel, church representatives, rural work-project employees, Indian agents, personal friends, and American Indians themselves. This contextual documentation permits analysis from such diverse perspectives as trade, personal accounts, racism, reservation life, technology, family life, and relationships with the land.

Ojibwa Bandolier bag is from the Minnesota Historical Society’s Harry & Jeannette Ayer Collection.

Reticules & Receptacles: 400 Years of Bead-embellished Purses and Containers

Photo by Ivan J. Winfield.

Ms. Winfield will take us on a historical journey through four centuries of applying glass beads to bags, baskets, boxes, and beyond. She will show spectacular color close-ups of embroidered, woven, and knitted designs used on handbags, boxes, and decorative art from the 1600s to the present.

Ms. Winfield holds a B.A. in English literature and French from the University of California, Berkeley, and a M. Ed. from Boston University.

In the 1990s, she designed a curriculum featuring beadwork on vintage costume for Ursuline College, and introduced three classes: Fashion Beadwork, Restoration of Historic Costume, and Couture Embellishments. She is the co-author of two books on beadwork with Drs. Leslie Piña and Constance Korosec: Beads in Fashion 1900 - 2000 and Beads on Bags 1800 - 2000.

Ms. Winfield is currently conducting an oral history project, recording the life of Gabrielle Liese, founding director of The Bead Museum in Glendale, Arizona.

Photo by and from the collection of Leslie Piña.

Contemporary Beads and Jewelry
Saturday, April 14, 7-9 p.m.

Kate Drew-Wilkinson (left) and Nadine Piskadlo (right).

Free to all Bead Expo workshop students, symposium and bazaar attendees

Noted bead artists Kate Drew-Wilkinson and Nadine Piskadlo will host a slide show and discussion on contemporary lamp-work bead-making in Europe. The presentation combines the early work of many of the first contemporary American bead makers like Brian Kirkvliet, Pat Frantz, Loren Stump, Patty Walton, and Kate herself, with the contemporary works of artists from the United States and from various European countries.

Nadine, a lampwork bead maker and glass bead gallery owner, is traveling from Le Treport in Normandy to share this presentation with Kate.

Kate Drew-Wilkinson was born and raised in England. Her travels as the daughter of an English Army officer opened her to many cultures at an early age. As a teenager in Tunisia and Libya, she learned about Roman beads, and that was the beginning of it all. Kate began earning her living working with and designing bead jewelry 30 years ago. She began making glass beads in 1990.

What’s New in Bead Research

Free to symposium attendees.

The Society of Bead Researchers’ “What’s New in Bead Research” session allows persons studying beads and beadwork to present brief (15 min.) illustrated reports on their projects. Anyone interested in presenting a brief talk on their in-progress work, please contact Karlis Karklins at Karlis44@aol.com.

Society of Bead Researchers General Meeting

Free to symposium attendees.

At another afternoon session, all members and potential members of the Society of Bead Researchers are invited to attend the SBR General Meeting, which includes reports from the officers.

The Symposium Organizers

Alice Scherer
Of the Center for the Study of Beadwork and co-author of The New Beadwork. Ms. Scherer lives in Oregon City, Oregon, and has been devoted to networking researchers, bead manufacturers, and beadworkers since the late 1970s. She may be reached at csb@europa.com. The Center for the Study of Beadwork’s website is www.europa.com/~alice.

Photo by: David Weisel

Karlis Karklins
Editor of Beads: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers and archaeologist and material culture researcher formerly with Parks Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. Mr. Karklins has been researching beads and beadwork for forty years and is the author of Trade Ornament Usage Among the Native Peoples of Canada. He may be reached at Karlis44@aol.com. Visit The Society of Bead Researchers website for more information.

Photo by: Rock Chan