Most sources attribute the original idea of the ribbon loop to 68-year-old Charlotte Haley, who knew many women who had battled breast cancer. But the pink-colored ribbon and the widespread introduction of it is credited to the year 1991 and two forward-thinking women -- Evelyn H. Lauder, founder and president of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Alexandra Penney, then-editor of Self magazine.

The beading world is keeping up and creating beautiful, lasting, lampworked treasures to keep awareness alive all year long --  not only for this disease, but also for other debilitating and deadly diseases, and other special causes.

http://www.beadpeddler.com offers the ribbon beads in small quantities or by bulk.  It also has a whole line of ready made jewelry and accessories that features the pink ribbon beads.  One unique pink ribbon item offered  is a Catholic rosary.  The Bead Peddler® donates 10% of the sales price of all pink ribbon items to the American Cancer Society.  Wholesale and retail orders are welcome.

As you may have noticed, pink ribbons have a lot of company, cause-wise, and this is reflected in other ribbons and lampwork designs.

According to the Choose Hope site, http://www.choosehope.com/, some other colors of ribbon and their respective causes are gray for brain cancer, gold for childhood cancers, lavender for general cancer awareness, and peach for uterine cancer. The site has a complete calendar of cancer awareness dates, and also a list of colors of all the different cancer awareness ribbons.

Whether in ribbon form or on a lampworked bead, this method of increasing awareness has grown to encompass many things, including prayer, patriotism, cancer, AIDS, and other health issues. The red ribbon for AIDS was also one of the first awareness ribbons.

For Danielle Lachapelle, of Danielle's Designs, the lampworked ribbon beads have special meaning.  "About two years ago our supplier had a special order of clear breast cancer beads and was not sure what they were. As a breast cancer survivor I jumped at the opportunity to purchase all the rest of her stock and bring to her attention what these were," she explains. "Since then I have designed and ordered many other awareness beads supporting many other illnesses and symptoms, as some are close to our family."

She says she felt a need for a lot of awareness and found a wonderful way to express this need through beads. The illnesses represented in the beads she chooses include fibromyalgia, ovarian cancer, fragile X syndrome, leukemia, and autism.

"I get requests daily for many other colored ribbons that I do special orders for customers on a regular basis," she says. "Many of our customers tell us that the profits that they make for the jewelry they make is donated to different organizations either 100 percent or a percentage thereof. We also donate a percentage of each sale of the awareness beads to charity."

Lampworked beads are not the only beading items to show support for different causes. Metal or enamel ribbon-loop-shaped charms in red, white and blue are popular for patriotism, while the same kind of charms in yellow are for remembrance and support of our troops. Charms for autism awareness are the familiar ribbon shape with outlined puzzle pieces in a rainbow of colors.

---- Breast cancer awareness bead photos courtesy of Rosan E. Royston, http://www.BeadsOnline.com

Troop support beads photo and multicolored ribbon bead photos courtesy of Jacques and Danielle Lachapelle of Danielle's Designs, http://daniellesdesigns.net

Pink ribbon history information from  http://www.pinkribbon.com