About Bokamo Designs

An electrician by trade Steve Rhoades was used to working with his hands. Changing from tools to a torch he started experimenting with glass after watching his son work with borosilicate glass. By watching videos, asking questions of others in the field and trial and error Steve taught himself to make beads. Always experimenting with colors from different manufacturers and trying new ideas Steve has developed the ability to bring out amazing earthy colors in his individual beads. As the song goes Steve has truly taken his passion and makes it happen in each bead he creates.

With so many beads lying around the house Steve began telling me (Terry) that I needed to make some into jewelry. Not knowing the first thing about stringing I wasn’t even sure how to get started. Then I saw an ad for a basic stringing class at a local bead store and I was hooked. I’ve given up cleaning house for stringing Steve’s beads with other findings to create fun, unique jewelry. If you happen to stop by – please ignore the cobwebs & dust. I am busy beading!

Bokamo Designs was born in the spring of 2002 when the beads and the jewelry took over the house and we decided that we had better see if we could sell any of it to support our habits! Not realizing what we were getting into Steve signed us up for the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee. A great time was had, and beads and jewelry were sold! Since then beads and jewelry have delighted buyers across the country.

BOKAMO is a combination of the first two letters of our children’s names – BObby, KAra and MOnica. (Monica, being the oldest thought that name should be Mokabo. We tried to appease her by telling her we saved the best for last!)

Please feel free to contact us or call us (913) 648-4296 if you have any questions or want to discuss sports or other earth shattering events. We look forward to meeting you at one of the many shows we do through out the year. Please introduce yourself – we love to meet our online customers. Happy Beading!