Vicki Lapp
1963-2025

Our founder, longtime Alameda resident and entrepreneur Vicki Lapp passed away February 10, 2025. She was born May 19, 1963, and grew up in Kansas City, Mo., graduating from Park Hill High School in 1981. She earned her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology, where she graduated cum laude in 1985. Upon graduation, she moved to the Bay Area, initially working in engineering sales and corporate training. Along the way, she discovered her love of beading and started a home-based business, teaching jewelry-making classes and growing a community of fellow beading enthusiasts. In 2004, she merged her analytical skills, creative drive and entrepreneurial spirit by opening Bead Inspirations at 1544 Park Street. 

“Every person is naturally creative,” she wrote in her business plan. “We strive to foster an environment where people are encouraged, supported and acknowledged in expressing their natural creativity.”

She was a fierce competitor, whether playing tennis, pickleball, golf or Scrabble. She loved music and was drawn to many forms of dancing, particularly contra dancing, and spearheaded a local dance in Alameda amid the pandemic. She played violin/fiddle and piano and help make the “von Lapp family Christmas carolers” a family tradition. In addition to jewelry-making, she dabbled in many hobbies, from painting and photography to pottery and pressed flower arrangements. She loved to ride her bike around Alameda, swim in the ocean, kayak in the harbor, and hike in the redwood forests.

She was inquisitive about spirituality and active in Alameda-based Home of Truth, where she had served on the board and led discussion groups. When she was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, she became an expert in the disease and made every effort to stay positive despite the hardships of treatment. She enjoyed the support of numerous friends who were a constant presence in her life. She is survived by her father and stepmother Fred and Kathy Lapp, sisters Toni and Gina, nieces/nephews Sabine, Greta, Candice and Cory, and countless admirers and spiritual travelers. The shop that she built from her own persistence and fortitude is her legacy, and indeed, an inspiration.