Thursday, April 14, 2011

Bag of Beads Reveal - Part 1

Having spent close to 10 hours on the computer at work today, I am not too keen about spending a lot of time blogging tonight but I do want to share some of the photos from last night's Toronto Bead Society's Bag of Beads reveal, where 27 members shared their 2011 creations. So here goes:

One of the most common items (inspired by the feathers) were dreamcatchers.  Sonya told us that her five year old nephew recently started having nightmares, so she wanted to make a dreamcatcher to give him to help with that.  She learned how to make hers by watching a video on YouTube.

Made by (L to R): Liz, Sonya (oops - I might have mixed up the order, could be Sonya's on the left and Liz's on the right) and Sharon Couzens

Another popular item this year was masks:
L to R: Made by Kate Chesney, Rita Metcalf and Carol Shevlin
The most common theme (as a result of the colours of the beads we were given) was the peacock, as the colours of beads we were given to use suggested peacock feathers to several people.

Marilyn Parker made this beautiful necklace, based on a peacock's tail when it isn't fanned out (and minus the purple feathers, to which she was allergic):

Maureen Warland learned how to transfer images onto fabric with her husband's help, which they used to decorate the back of this denim jacket and then Maureen beaded the peacock.  She told us she isn't finished, she plans to paint the background image and bead the 2nd bird.  I quite like it just the way it is.

The most inventive item had to be this 3 dimensional peacock, made by Andrea Knowles-Muller, who advised that her piece was made up of 20 percent beading and 80% engineering.  She described how she first made the armature, which is soldered and padded and then covered in silk, and then beaded the bird with various stitches such as peyote, freeform peyote and bead embroidery.  The wheels of the wagon are glass Czech buttons. You can't see from my photo that there are 3 butterflies flying out front at the front of the wagon.  Such an imaginative and beautiful piece.
More photos tomorrow.

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