We are a friendly bead and craft shop in the centre of Nottingham since January 2000. To learn more about the history of the bead shop over on our blog.As of July 2021 we now have a cafe within our ground floor shop with outside seating as well as a small seating area at the back of the shop, read more about this here.
We love teaching workshops, fixing jewellery and sharing our knowledge of beading and jewellery making with you.
Meet the bead shop team and learn more about our jewellery making expertise and interests below.
We feel strongly about the ethics and environmental credentials of the products we stock, read on for our ethical policy.
Meet our team
Hana
Hana (She/Her) started the Bead Shop when she was 18 years old and has loved beads for as long as she can remember!
After spending a year studying Silversmithing at Loughborough University, Hana is a qualified Art Clay tutor and has spent many years making glass beads and fused glass jewellery. She has co-authored two beading books with Robin and teaches several glass workshops here. You’ll often find her in the shop or wholesale department re-ordering stock or chatting to customers about what products they’d like us to order in.
On top of all that Hana is a business mentor and coaches others who wish to start up their own business. She is passionate about independent retail and collaborating with other indie businesses.
Hana loves Peyote Stitch, crochet, stars, Dragons and all thing Purple.
Robin
Robin started the Bead Shop with Hana back in 1999 and is the in house technical genius and maintenance guy.
Robin prefers to work with wire and has taught in the beginners beading workshops and the more advanced techniques of brick stitch, peyote and herringbone stitch. Robin specializes in creating findings with wire either by hand or with the Wigjig family of wire jigs.
He has been selling beads for the last 25 years and knows much more than he likes to let on. You’ll see Robin at all the bead fairs and event we do as he’s the best person for moving the heavy boxes of beads and upright display stands.
Robin has co-authored two books with Hana, one on Tiara making and the other on general beading.
He loves Marmite, wirework & chocolate (hates posing for photos).
Steph
Steph (She/Her) is in charge when Hana or Robin aren’t around and designs the majority of our kits and workshops. She is very creative and has experimented with most craft techniques. She specialises in bead weaving (though is talented at virtually all jewellery making techniques) and is often found playing with new bead shapes to create interesting patterns.
Steph also writes our weekly newsletter and is our Product photographer.
She has a degree in Fine Art from Nottingham Trent University. Steph also has the official qualification from Art Clay to teach workshops with their products and is our main workshop tutor.
Outside of the shop she always has a knitting project and a cup of tea on the go tea drinker! Steph also loves beading, teal beads and most other crafts!
Angela
Angela (She/Her) is an all round creative soul, an experienced florist and expert Coffee maker.
Angela is shop Queen, restring and jewellery repair extraordinaire & workshop tutor. You’ll find Angela in the shop most days (unless she’s teaching) she loves helping you all find the perfect items for your projects (and she’s very nosy too!).
She loves all things space themed and learning new wirework techniques! She's anotehr all round creative and recently got back into sewing.
Lucy
Lucy (She/Her) is the Mail order whiz and queen of the kit assembly. You’ll find Lucy in our wholesale department. She joined us as an apprentice at just 17 (a little over 3 years ago)!
Lucy loves making dangly earrings, sealife (especially Jellyfish) and recently added embroidery & crochet to her growing list of hobbies.
Greta
Greta (She/Her) is a part time shop assistant & kids party host (currently doing a Uni Placement). Greta studies Costume Design at NTU and her creativity and enthusiasm is a great asset for helping customers with their textile based projects.
Greta loves embellishments, tigers eye beads and making gifts for her family & friends.
Sophia
Sophia (She/her) is our part time mail order assistant and kit assembler. Sophia has just finished her first year of her Film Making degree at NTU. Always happy to help you find what you need.
Sophia loves films (of course), collecting CD’s and creating cute crochet tops & jewellery making.
Juno
Juno (They/Them) is our newest member of the team, filling in as part time shop assistant while Greta is away. Juno is super creative, already makes their own jewellery and oozes enthusiasm in the shop.
Juno loves theatre, bugs and all things green.
Fair Trade and Ethical policy
Both in our workshops and during our normal working day we use only fairtrade teas, coffee & hot chocolate.
All of us here at The Bead Shop feel pretty strongly about looking after our planet for the prosperity of future generations. We use recycled paper for our printing including the invoices we send with our mail orders. We always use the second side of any A4 paper we have here. This includes suppliers delivery notes, mail circulars and any mistakes that we make.
If you are a mail order customer then you may have already received an order in a recycled box. These boxes will have previously held stock or re-used packaging that was previously sent to us. Everything that can be re-used is and if not recycled. Even the empty milk containers are sometimes cut up and used as scoops in the stockroom!
It is our mission to avoid plastic waste as much as possible. To achieve this we re-use all packaging that is sent to us and also work with suppliers to reduce plastic packaging. Our shop customers are encouraged to return plastic bead tubes and kit packaging for us to re-use. We continue to work on sourcing card and paper packaging as a replacement for our plastic packaging.
Working with suppliers along the supply chain we do everything possible to ensure that all employees work in good conditions & receive a fair wage. We specialise in sourcing high quality products from manufacturers that care about their employees and the environment. Hana & Robin have visited the factory in the Czech Republic that manufactures our glass beads. Our wooden beads are sourced from sustainable wood in Germany, our findings are almost all plated here in the UK.
