The power of color or when the mojo vanishes... and how it came back

Apologies for my silence. I've been a bit under the weather the past months and in a blink, winter turned into Spring and now it is very warm in Switzerland. Extremely warm. With the heatwave being a monumental catastrophe for wildlife, we have installed two water points and one nourishing point for hedgehogs. 

I've been "absent" because of shoulder issues. No beading, very little typing, no cooking, nothing. I'm so grateful that my loved one can cook.

To fight boredom, I watched Robert E. Fuller's wildlife cams, kind of a magical window to watch owls and other birds live their daily life (mate, lay eggs, and face daily challenges). I loved to see the little birds grow, but very quickly these fluff balls left the nest and it was over. I watched many of his wildlife videos - he is a great naturalist.

Now that we finally have a car, hubby and I visited several beautiful places in my region, like Gruyères where the medieval castle and the Museum of Tibetan Art (which walls are those of a chapel) were a true delight. We saw the castle in January, it was cold (as it should) and beautiful.

In March, seeing the Tibetan Art Museum after the Giger Museum was a blessing. The latter has approx 35000 visitors per year and the former only 6000. Me seems thatonly  if it was the contrary, this world would be a better place. Unfortunately, one can get combo tickets for the castle and one of the museums, but it is not possible to get combo tickets for the 2 museums. 

                                          

In April we went to the tulip festival in Morges, organized each year in the Park of Independence, located on the shore of the lake. This year, there were many stunning double tulips.

We also visited the iris gardens in Vulllieriens in April & May. We will go back to this 30-acre garden. It is marvelous to be there.  I cannot share all my photos here, but it was stunning.

The Castle of Vullierens proposes their irises for sale, but they also have other beautiful flowers to marvel at. Unfortunately, we missed the roses because of the abnormal heatwaves. Perhaps we will be able to see their beautiful lillies, but I doubt it. We only do these things when it's rather cold, and avoid sunny days. The second visit at the castle was already too warm for me. 

The result? My mojo ran away. Beading is my occupational and color therapy, and apparently, the power of the flowers is as strong as the power of the beads... it's the power of color. Color therapy. It was largely compensated by all these wonderful flowers. It was essential for my arms and good for my spirits, but the mojo didn't come back.

For inspiration, I ordered a Kolorlan coloring journal from Katie Dean, a great tool to practice color therapy. It is absolutely lovely, and I would certainly recommend it for personal development and the energetic wellness coming from this other art for color therapy, in particular if you can't bead and need your color fix like me.

Thing is... It didn't bring the beadweaving mojo back. But.... In between visits, I made a pretty little bird house with bead mosaic! It was on my to-do list since forever but needed way more ginko beads than foreseen, and to find the same finish (hematite), I had to search quite a bit. I'm pleased with it. I like bead mosaic. It doesn't harm the tendons like beadweaving. I might need to find more items to cover with beads. 😊

My arms are better now, but they remain fragile. I might never bead big projects again... but you never know. To see how weaving would go, I made a pair of brickstitch earrings that I found very pretty. A bit of unbeading was involved, but the result is nice, and so lightweigth! 

You will find the video tutorial by Bead Spider for these pretties here.

The Guild's beading festival's theme this year was Japan. I hoped that the mojo would show up. It helped a bit... I made a small Kokeshi doll charm, which had me take up an old project that was left aside, that is Japanese bead embroidery, a class I took with Sylvia Fairhurst. Thing is... it takes forever to cover fabric with 15° beads and smaller. Unsurprisingly, my body is unhappy with me. Who would have thought that poking fabric could be so painful... 

This project is going to take a looot of patience. But I love it
and I will finish it (more beads have been ordered!) 

And, as silly as it might seem after having hit the wall because of my beautiful bead-embroidered bag - (Did you read about it? I think that I have never made something so beautiful) - I bought a kit for a Floral box from Sarah Cryer! With everything included to make what I'd describe as the most lovely bead embroidered box ever. More bead embroidery!!! Bad for my tendons, but I had to have it!

Photos are Sarah's - not my work. I still need to make it :D I am very enthusiastic, and know that I will enjoy it. Above left is the colorway that I bought, above right is a photo of other colorways. There are many options and, if you want to have one, I recommend that you put an alarm at 10 am UK time on your smart phone to be on time to visit her shop on 16th July (in two days), because she will list new boxes then, and the time you blink, they're gone. 

But before doing the box, I had to finish the instructions for this year's IBW project. I finished the draft today and still have to edit (lots of) videos, which is going to take a bit of time because I have to get familiar with a new video editing software, but voilà... I realized that when the the mojo runs away, so does patience. Not all patience, but when I make a mistake, I get upset (with the computer, with the beads, with myself). The reason is fear of arm pain. The muse still throws ideas at me, but the body shivers (it has good reasons, admittedly). Anyhow... this is my 2026 IBW project, a woven basket of woven beads, which made me think of the happy colors of everything Boho...

While making a second basket to film how to assemble this basket, the muse threw an idea at me: add Paisley petals to the top. I call it my Boteh Basket, because that is what the paisley is called in Persian, where this beautiful motif originates from.

I will do a little demo during International beading week - the most exciting week of the year for us beaders! I hope to see you then.

As you may understand from the last paragraph, the mojo is back. Of course the heatwave obliging us to remain inside most of the day has  my need for color flare, and the creative juices flow. Hopefully it will remain so even when we will go back to 'our' favorite garden. 

Cath

Beadworkers Guild Challenge 2026 - A night at the Opera - part 3 - the finished project

For those of you landing on this page from elsewhere but part 2 (preceeded by part 1), maybe read these 2 articles first, unless the making of something is not of interest to you. 

I have to say that, when I started this project, or rather when I bought the round bag with the idea to cover it with beads, I had absolutely no idea what I was about to inflict upon myself. Bead embroidery may be very freeing and limitless in essence, but the amount of work it takes to cover it was beyond my notion. Now I know better. Last year's mask was a small project compared to this. 

I don't think that I will ever make something similar again. But I don't regret it. Not even the shoulder issue - that would have happened sooner or later with another project anyhow. I learned a lot, and things that I learn on my own ('the hard way') make me grow. 

I'm proud that I succeeded to make what I envisioned... so in the end, perhaps it is sometimes better to not know what we are getting ourselves into.

Now the only thing left to do is going to the Opera with my

"Lady of the Camellias" 

jewelbag & accessories:

The sweets

My sweets may look simple, but quite a bit of effort
 went into them. I used Tubular Peyote stitch,
Herringbone stitch, RAW and MRAW.

The opera glasses

After several design explorations, I opted for a very sober white
and red flower design. Something not ordinary, but also not
too busy. Just a reminder of who these glasses belong to...

The jewelry

The very dainty chain is made with some sort of
2-bead netting (like Russian spiral) with
Swarovski "Crystal Linen" teardrops
matching Marguerite's pale gown.

Back of the pendant

The finished bag

and more details.

I have to say that I love my cabochon bezel and the 
nestling of the pearls in the bugle "beadscape"
and the way the micro crystals sparkle.

This video shows how much the bag

sparkles when moved.

This is how I imagined it displayed at the Guild's annual meeting:

I hear you ask: 

why couldn't I send it to the Guild for the challenge? 

Because a bag that measures 14x14x18cm fits in the box, but when one adds fabric, beadwork and padding, it doesn't anymore. The rules are clear - the box should not exceed 16cm on one side.

In my head all the lights were green, and for some strange reason,
I didn't double check. I made this project as if in a dream where everything was ok.

And that's life. 

I don't regret a thing, because I am delighted with my beautiful bag.

My favorite side is the red and black side. 

Which side do you prefer?

Let me know in the comments. 

Cath ❤

Beadworkers Guild Challenge 2026 - A night at the opera - part 2 - planning and playing

For those of you landing on this page from elsewhere but part one, I recommend reading that first. Also, if you're in a hurry, come back when you have a bit of spare time, to enjoy the read with a cup of something that you fancy, because this is not a 5-second read.

As explained, I already had a bag. A round ball like this:

Now to make something beautiful inspired by The Lady of the Camellias.

My goal for this bag was to tell Marguerite's circle of life, from innocence, opulence, and illness to death, and my motto was "the more, the merrier". More bling, more texture and more gold, to cover this round bag with luscious bead-embroidery.

Before doing anything else, I wanted to see what could be achieved with Tyvek though. Guild member and beader extraordinaire Sarah Cryer, who is much more into bead embroidery than me, introduced us to this novelty material to create texture in her work. 

Preliminary tests with Tyvek

I treated myself to a heat gun and Tyvek to create these interesting "moonscapes" with it. I watched videos on YouTube to learn more about the process. First I tried without paint. Then I used acrylic and gold paint to color it the same colours as the bag. Once dry, I cut out pieces to heat. 

I painted the Tyvek with Marguerite's life in mind

I found it to be best to avoid sharp angles
and use small to medium size pieces

Tyvek shrinks when heated. You must be careful not to burn yourself, but also not to burn the Tyvek, because it melts. I had lots of fun playing with this material. It  is rather flexible, but tends to lie flat, which wasn't so great on a round ball, but it worked. Also, depending on where, one has to poke it hard to have the needle pass through it, for when heated, it becomes harder, like plastic. I think that it's really nice though.

Part of these pieces of Tyvek found a place
on the bag. 

The novel states that Marguerite always had a bouquet of camellia flowers with her, and they carried a message: white camellias meant that she was available for lovers, red camelias meant she wasn't.

You need more than 'enough' flowers,
for they are not always well shaped

I chose to use cream and red camellia flowers on the bag, which would represent Marguerite's short life, and added one white camellia for her birth, and one black for her death (she died from tuberculosis at only 23). Also...

... I colored one camellia and 2 leaves a tea rose color, 
representing the brief moments of true bliss.

For the foundation, I purchased "laminated" jacquard fabric. The fabric had lots of variations in texture, which I intended to put to use to place my beads and colors. This fabric appeared to fray a lot. 

It's been quite an adventure to cut and assemble the parts, which I chose to call my "orange peels", and I made them rather large compared to the size of the ball. Using the fabric to have more texture makes the fabric shrink, adding beads and other things like the flowers too.

I made my own chablon to cut the fabric

The gold fabric was a bit too champagne rosé

But that ended up being a blessing in disguise.
I colored certain portions of the fabric

For my beads, I mainly used durable, good quality materials: freshwater pearls, 24kt and 14kt Plated seed beads, Swarovski crystal beads, pearls and elements and rhinestones. Lots of micro crystals too. And of course sequins. This bag is meant to shine at the opera!

The fresh pale colours and the layout on the champagne side of the bag represent Marguerite's birth and the effervescence of her demi-mondaine life-style. The dark, yet sparkly side of the bag depicts her loneliness, illness and finally her death. Back in her days, her sacrifice, her life falling apart and suffering, were seen as the ‘earning of her wings’, reason why there is a black feather on the side of the black flower.

First orange "peel" in the make

I started with the dark side of the bag. Only one 'range peel'. After finishing the first, it became obvious that it would have been better to embroider all 3 orange peels already attached to one another. So the second portion was made of 2 (and the other side of the bag of 3). 

Planning where to put things is one thing,
changing and rearranging them
a hundred times, is
the next thing

At this stage my arm was hurting a real lot. I thought that I'd never finish this bag. Then I discovered how putting a small cushion under my hand and arm while sleeping was life changing. 

When covering the bag on the first side, I decided to add padding under the fabric, for a better fit. I then had to add more fabric to one side. Fortunately it worked well.

the moment of truth

For those wondering, yes I used glue. To apply it in the slit between the bag's frame and the ball, I used a syringe and a dentist tool to push the fabric neatly in place, very slowly. It worked! Which was a big relief. 

Now if the dark side of the bag looks as if beads are dripping from top to bottom (especially in the black portion), and the cup chain looks "broken", the bright side has a symmetric layout with a continuous swirly silk wave and continuous cup chain.

To plan the layout, I pinned the silk elements in place.

The pale side of the bag took much less time to make than the dark side, thanks to lessons learned. One of these lessons was to add fragile elements the latest. 

On the champagne side, I added lots of little flower-shaped sequins to surround the Tyvek. I had those adorable sequins only in white and wanted them in reds / coral and gold too, so I dyed them. 

I also dyed my thread. 

Shibori silk must be the most fragile fabric ever. To protect it, - as well as the flowers and the leaves -, I planned where to place these elements, and then embroidered the entire surface without them. The photos here show the empty spaces for the leaves and the flowers. If you look at the beadwork closely, you will see the different names of the lady of the Camellias written with beads.

Marie

Marguerite

Camille

Violetta

While waiting for materials like (more) silk flowers and real Shibori silk, which was surprisingly hard to find in ivory (the one I bought from Perles & Co. was not real Shibory silk at all), I made the other items for in the bag: sweets and opera glasses.

Last but not least, the inspiration for the sweets:

Napoleons

Berlingots of Carpentras

To find which sweets Marguerite might have carried in her bag I had to put some Sherlock glasses on. I opted for two sorts: the "Napoleon" - which are round candy balls from the Netherlands, and the "Berlingots of Carpentras", which are attested to be the oldest French sweets (and still made today). 

You will discover the finished project in part 3.