The World on a String

This past Wednesday was the May meeting of the Toronto Bead Society. It was our annual general meeting to elect the Steering Committee but there wasn't anything to vote on because all the positions were filled by acclimation (i.e. only one person volunteered to do the job so they were picked!). In some cases, two or three people offered to share the position, which probably makes sense as far as time commitments go. I'm sure everyone will do a great job.

Since that that part of the meeting didn't take too long to sort out, we were then treated to a showing of part of a DVD (which was actually one of a series of 5 in total) called "The World on a String". It's a "documentary series produced by veteran film maker Diana Friedberg" showing the history of the world as it pertains to beading. Not surprisingly, she travelled to over 30 countries to film the series.

The DVD we watched was called "A Passion for Beads" and the two or three segments that I saw were quite fascinating. One woman was teaching African people to make beads out of recycled glass, including eyeglass lenses, while another woman described her passion for vintage Swarovski crystals and displayed the dresses she makes entirely out of crystals, feathers and ribbons but absolutely no fabric. Unfortunately, I can't find anything about her designs on the Internet (all I remember is her last name was Be!!) which is a shame because these outfits have to be seen to be believed, they are exquisitely beautiful. One skirt was made entirely out of peacock feathers! The dresses take hours and hours of time to make and they often created right on the models for a perfect fit. Incredible.

Here's the link to the website for the DVDs: http://www.worldonastringmovie.com/index.html

I'm definitely going to check them out.