Wolverhampton’s Adult Education Service is marking Black History Month by inviting people to try their hand at a traditional beading technique. Experts will be holding free workshops on Wednesday (14 October, 2015), demonstrating basic techniques and then giving people the chance to make their own bracelets to take away with them. The oldest forms of beads date back some 75,000 years and were made in Africa from shell. The first country to mass produce beads and beaded works was Egypt, around 2,200BC, when they were used as jewellery and to decorate items of clothing.
Beads continue to be made today from a wide variety of materials including shell, bone, stone and glass, while women in Uganda use recycled pages from old magazines, which are strung together to form necklaces and bracelets, which they then sell.
Wednesday’s free workshops, taking place from 10am-noon and 1pm-3pm, will showcase the techniques used to make paper beads and will be held at the Adult Education Service’s Foyer Building, St George’s Parade.
For further information, please contact Val Sadkowska on 01902 551660.
