About

We are a team of twelve women who have three things in common:

We live in Cape Town.

We love weaving with beads.

We really care about each other.

Founded in 2009, Beloved Beadwork is situated beneath Table Mountain in Cape Town, where daily we spend hours intricately weaving glass beads into beautiful items of adornment.

Who we are:

A team of extraordinarily talented women led by Beloved’s head designer, Anna Richerby. We come from a wide range of backgrounds and interests, and share one key interest; beads!

Anna was born and brought up in the UK, and has had an innate love of beads since she can remember. In 2000 she spent a gap year in Cape Town, and returned home briefly to attain her degree in anthropology and economics, before settling permanently in Cape Town in 2005. Anna runs Beloved because “I really like glass beads and I really love my colleagues”.

Our materials:

Did you know there are only a few glass bead factories in the world? This has been the case for the past couple of thousand years! There are no glass bead factories in South Africa, and the finest, most durable beads come from Japan, so these are the beads we use. Our pieces are finished with either sterling silver or gold-filled chains, clasps and hooks.

Our method and model:

We use complex weaving techniques to make jewellery in the geometric forms we are know for. Keen to avoid the income instability which is pervasive in the craft industry, we permanently employ all our staff. We sell our work directly through our shop at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town and this website. Our work is also stocked in some beautiful shops and boutiques around the world.