Bags of Beads Challenge 2011

It's that time of  year again.  Tonight at this month's Toronto Bead Society meeting, we'll all be showing what we made with the bag of beads we each received two months ago.  I've been busy the past two weeks putting my piece together and now she can finally be revealed in all her glory.

Here's what we all started out with:

5 amethyst beads

5 peacock blue pearls

1 m rosary chain (gold)

20 gm size 6 lilac/mint seed beads

10 gm size 11 metallic blue seed beads

4 gm 3-cuts gold

10 gm #4 twisted bugles

1 beautiful butterfly 7cm

purple bulk feathers

We have to use at least one of everything and we can add whatever we want to the mix as well.  As always, there are a couple of items that are more challenging than the others.  This year, for example, it was the butterfly and the feathers.  I can't wait to see what my fellow TBS members have done with their components, which I am sure will be awesome (photos tomorrow) but as soon as I saw the components we were being given to work with, I knew exactly what I wanted to make.  An art paper doll.

I have Laura Haviland to thank for the inspiration and instruction I needed to make this art paper doll (and for giving me not one but two extra faces to use, just in case).  Like I mentioned in my blog the other day, as Kyle Cassidy says, it helps to hang around talented people, it challenges you to create some amazing to bring to show and tell.  Laura is definitely one of those people who encourages you to up your game.

So here she is.  Her name is Esmeralda and she is, of course, Parisian.

I am so excited and pleased with the results!!  Do you ever get that feeling when you're making something that it's going to turn out really cool? That's how I felt about this, even though I wasn't entirely sure exactly how everything would come together.  In the end, I was in that creative groove and everything just flowed into where it belonged.

I love her big, poufy hat - perhaps she will wear it to Kate and Will's wedding next week, n'est-ce pas?  I have to thank Barb Starace of Bizzy B for stocking the ribbon I used to make the hat.  Her husband Tony told me he thought she was crazy when she ordered it but I think she knew exactly what she was doing!  (it comes in other colours as well, I might have to go back and buy some more!)

She's hard to photograph, because her hat makes her so tall, which is why I am showing you these photos of her top and bottom half. :)

Here's a close up of the skirt:

If I'd had more time (my own fault for starting late), I would have filled in the rest of her dress with bead embroidery but I like the way it turned out.  In this case, less is more.  Besides, I wouldn't want her outfit to compete too strongly with that hat!