Beads of Courage | Bead Artists

Bead Artist Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in creating beads for Beads of Courage UK. Our programmes rely on two different types of bead; programme beads and act of courage beads.

Programme beads make up the majority of beads that we use across our six programmes; these beads are commercially manufactured due to the vast quantity of numbers involved.

Act of Courage beads are the artist-made glass beads that are given to acknowledge the milestones in each treatment journey. Act of Courage beads can take almost any form that you would like to make – it’s an opportunity for you let your imagination guide you!

The 3/32” (approx. 2.5mm) mandrel is preferred but other sizes are also useable.

Every year we require approximately 100,000 of these handmade beads so that children can continue to receive one-of-a-kind beads for significant treatment milestones, and we are so grateful for the bead artists who continue to donate beads and support Beads of Courage UK.

Special Requirements for Act of Courage Beads:

* Please have nice ‘puckers’ on the ends of the beads, sharp edges on the bead holes cut fingers and can not be sent out. Overly frilly bits sticking out may break off and leave sharp edges on the surface, be sure that raised dots have solid connections (no undercuts) and that surface decorations are robust enough to take some knocking about.

* We ask that you refrain from using reduction frit or glasses that give a metallic sheen on the surface due to heavy metal issues with these materials. We can’t send metallic reduction surface beads to the BOCuk members.

* Please anneal your beads properly in a kiln to ensure they don’t crack. Cracked beads have to be gotten rid of.

* Please ensue that the bead release is cleaned out before sending to us. Beads with the release still inside take more time to clean and this tremendously slows down turnaround time to the hospitals.

Bead donations can be sent to:

Beads of Courage UK, Unit 12 Harvard Court, Winwick Quay Business Centre, Warrington, Cheshire, WA2 8LT

Download Bead Donation Form

Following these requirements will help us get the beads out to the kids quickly and get your acknowledgments and receipts back to you in a timely fashion. All donated beads are inspected and sorted by our staff and making sure that your beads meet the need really helps things move along. Quality is far more important than quantity.

Bead Delivery to Hospitals

None of our member hospitals are set up for direct donation. All beads distributed in our programme are our responsibility so we need to see every Act of Courage bead before it goes out. Please remember to send all of your donated beads to the Beads of Courage UK Headquarters for distribution. You can request that donations go to your nearest member hospital if you like, but remember that there are a lot of kids that need your beads who aren’t near beadmakers and they would love to have your beads too. Please keep in mind, when possible you will be personally invited to special Beads of Courage events at member hospitals where you can deliver Dream Beads in person. We look forward to having more of these events in the future!

Lampwork Tutorials

The Beads of Courage Programme relies on the wonderful talent of an army of glass bead makers to help and support children during their difficult treatment journeys.

Courage beads are used for various reasons. They are known as a “booster bead” because they aren’t given for a specific treatment such as chemo, blood transfusions etc. Sometimes a nurse will have a child who is just so poorly, or so scared they won’t come out of bed. They just lay down, pull their blankets over their heads and want to forget the world. We have testimonies from nurses who have said in situations like this, they will take a box of courage beads in to the child’s room, and ask them to look through the box of beads and choose one that represents how they feel that day. They leave the box with the child, and after a short time, not only has the child chosen a bead, but they want to tell you why that bead represents how they feel that day, and what it was about that bead that made them choose it. They want to engage, and the bead has given them a way to do that.

Here are some fabulous Lampwork Tutorials
Click on each image for the instructions on how to make these fabulous pieces. You can also get more Lampwork information here: facebook and Frit Happens.

Tutorials kindly contributed by Jolene Wolfe Laney Mead Helen Vanek Trudi Doherty Emma Green