The Bead People Hosting Resources
A Simple Guide for Hosting Your Own Bead People Gathering
Bead People are meant to be made together. You don't need to be an artist, a jewelry maker, or an experienced group leader to host a gathering. You need a place to meet, enough supplies for the people coming, copies of The Wind of a Thousand Years for your project, and one or two people who have learned the simple process of putting a Bead Person together.
The story is an important part of every Bead People gathering. Without it, the Bead People are really just another cute trinket. The story is what gives us a way to talk about being different, belonging, acceptance, and how we choose to live with one another.
Most gatherings have two parts. First we gather around the bead tables and make our little people. Then we leave the tables, bring our Bead People and stories with us, and sit together in circle. The making opens the door. The circle is where we begin to know each other.
Two Ways to Get Started
Order Ready-to-Go Kits
The store has Bead People kits packaged for a build of 10. Order enough kits to fit the size of your group. Each kit includes an assortment of beads, tools, pre-cut and pre-bent arm and leg wires, 2-inch eye wires, double jump rings, cord, and enough copies of The Wind of a Thousand Years for the project.
We've done the gathering, measuring, and wire preparation for you, so you can spread everything out on the tables and get started.
Or Order the Books and Gather Your Own Supplies
Many schools, churches, and larger groups choose this option because it can make the project more affordable. Order the books, then hold a bead drive and gather the rest locally. Ask families and community members for old necklaces, bracelets, single earrings, broken jewelry, and beads they have tucked away and aren't using.
Sometimes gathering the materials becomes part of the project itself. You may discover jewelry makers in your community who already have tools, beads, and a little know-how to share.
Learn to Make a Bead Person
Bead People are simple to make, but it helps to make a few yourself before showing someone else. Watch the short how-to video, gather a few beads and a piece of wire, and give it a try. If jewelry making is not your thing, don't let that stop you. Find someone who already knows their way around beads, wire, and a pair of pliers. There is usually a jewelry maker hiding somewhere in every community.
DIY Supplies List
- Beads: A combination of larger beads for heads and bodies and smaller beads or seed beads for arms and legs. Variety is part of the fun. Old and broken jewelry is wonderful for this.
- 20-gauge craft wire: Used for the arms and legs. I usually measure a piece about the width of four fingers and cut it. It doesn't have to be exact.
- 2-inch pre-bent eye wires: Available in the jewelry-making section of most hobby or craft stores. These form the center of the Bead Person.
- Pliers and wire cutters: Small 3-in-1 jewelry pliers are handy because they include a cutter for trimming excess wire. Fine needle-nose pliers and a separate wire cutter work too. Have several sets available for a group.
- Double jump rings: These attach to the eye at the top of the finished Bead Person and make it easy to add a cord, chain, or key ring.
- Cord, string, chain, or key rings: Have something ready so each Bead Person can be completely finished and ready to wear, carry, give away, or send into the world.
- Copies of The Wind of a Thousand Years: Plan for enough books for your project. The story is what takes the experience beyond making a cute little person and opens the conversation about difference, belonging, and how we treat one another.
And About Those Beads . . .
I have a ridiculous number of beads. People have donated beads to The Bead People over the years, and I am always happy to see them find their way back out into the world. I often talk with people who are planning a project, even when they're ordering only the books and gathering their own supplies. I've been known to tuck a starter bag of beads into the box to help get things going. So if you have an idea but aren't quite sure what you need, reach out and tell me what you're thinking. And if you're the person with boxes of old beads looking for somewhere for them to go, you can reach out about that too.
[ADD LINK: Reach Out to Me]
Places to Gather
Schools & Churches
Decide how many people will participate. Order complete kits or order the books and create your own bead drive. Have a few adults, teachers, parents, or older students learn to make Bead People beforehand so there are helping hands at the tables. Set a date and give yourselves enough time for both parts of the gathering - the making and the circle afterward.
Women's Groups
There is something about sitting around a table making things together that makes conversation easier. A Bead People gathering can be an evening with friends, part of a women's group or retreat, or simply a reason to gather. Put on the coffee. Or the wine. Dump some beautiful beads on the table and see what happens. When everyone is finished, take your little people and stories with you and move into circle.
Conferences & Peace Events
For a larger event, plan ahead for enough books, beads, tools, and helpers. Several smaller bead tables usually work better than one enormous one. Make room for the story and the circle. Making the little people is fun, but the deeper purpose is what happens when we use them to begin talking to one another.
Birthday Parties
Yes, Bead People can be a birthday party. Have enough adults available to help younger children with the tools and make a few samples beforehand. Let everyone make a little person, then leave the bead table behind, read the story, and gather in circle. And then, of course, there should probably be cake.
Family Reunion Activities
I live in the Northwoods of Minnesota and many families gather here for summer fun. The Bead People make a wonderful rainy day project that families can do together during their vacation. All ages enjoy playing with the beads and watching their little people come to live.
How to Get Started
The Bead People Gathering - Step by Step
1. Decide how many people will participate. A few friends? A classroom? A church group? Fifty people at a conference? Your number will help you decide what you need.
2. Choose your supplies. Order complete kits for the size of your group, or order the books and gather the beads, wire, tools, jump rings, and finishing cords yourself. If you're doing it yourself, consider starting with a bead drive.
3. Learn how to make a Bead Person. Watch the video and make a few yourself. For a larger gathering, recruit some helpers and teach them beforehand.
4. Set a date and gather your people. Allow enough time for both making and talking. Choosing the beads and creating the little people shouldn't feel rushed.
5. Make your Bead People. Gather around the tables and begin. People choose their beads, help one another, talk, laugh, change their minds, and eventually create a little person that is entirely their own. No two ever seem to come out quite alike.
6. Leave the tables and move into circle. When everyone has finished, bring your Bead People and copies of The Wind of a Thousand Years and gather together in circle. Now we move into the second part of the gathering.
7. Read the story. Read The Wind of a Thousand Years together. The story gives us a common place to begin and is what takes us from making something cute out of beads into the reason the Bead People exist.
8. Talk. I usually begin with questions such as: Who here has ever felt too big? Too small? Too different? Who has ever felt like they were the 'other' one - or like they just didn't quite fit in? From there we talk about difference, belonging, tolerance, acceptance, and learning to appreciate and celebrate the things that make us different.
9. Introduce your Bead People. Go around the circle. Each person introduces themselves and the Bead Person they have just made. Children often know much more about their little person than you might expect. Give them room to tell you. Listen. Sometimes, while they are telling us about their Bead Person, they are also telling us a little something about themselves.
10. Say the Bead People Manifesto together. Finish by saying the Bead People Manifesto aloud as a group. By now you have made something together, heard the story, talked about what it means to belong, and listened to one another. Then you speak the same words together.
11. Send them into the world. Some Bead People are kept. Some are traded. Some are given away. Some travel across town, across the country, or across the world. There isn't one right ending. That's part of the story too.
[ADD LINK OR TEXT: The Bead People Manifesto]
The Bead People in Your Hands
Something happens sometimes when people meet the Bead People. They fall in love with the little guys. They start making more. They give them away. They take them places. And every once in a while someone omes to me and says, "I've been thinking..." Those are some of my favorite conversations.
Over the years, people have taken The Bead People in all kinds of directions. A middle school class made 180 of them to give away at the end of the school year. One woman made 20 and tucked them into her luggage to take on a retreat in Italy. Twice now, groups have adapted The Wind of a Thousand Years into a stage play for children. Others have begun making and selling Bead People at craft shows, facilitating their own youth projects, or finding completely new ways to bring them into their communities.
I love that.
You don't need to become an official "chapter" or wait for me to create a program that tells you what to do.
If you fall in love with The Bead People and want to take the idea further, it is entirely yours to explore. Make them. Sell them. Give them away. Build a project around them. Take them into schools or youth groups. Put on a play. Take twenty of them to Italy. Come up with something I haven't thought of yet.
There is only one thing we ask.
Every Bead Person travels with a copy of The Wind of a Thousand Years. One Bead Person. One story.
Even if you're making three Bead People in one family, each one gets its own copy. If you're making thirty with a classroom, there are thirty stories. If you're making them to sell at a craft show, each little person goes home with a story. Because we never really know where a Bead Person will end up. It may stay with the person who made it. It may be given to a friend. It may be tucked into a suitcase or mailed across the world. It may be passed along again years from now. Wherever the little person goes, we want its story to be able to go too.
The Wind of a Thousand Years is the heart of The Bead People. It carries the reason these little people exist in the first place—the invitation to look at our differences, think about belonging, and perhaps see one another a little differently. So take the idea wherever you want to take it. Just keep the little people and their story together.
Beyond that, The Bead People are in your hands. I'd love to see where you take them.
And keep in touch and let me know what you are doing.
