Hello my dears,This year, International Beading Week was fab! Our IBW group was super active thanks to the leadership of our new Administrator, Susannah Thomson aka ZannahMakes, and the invaluable help from the talented Sarah Cryer, aka The Indecisive Beader, not to mention the efforts of all the other wonderful peeps from the Beadworkers Guild who worked restlessly behind the scenes to make this week memorable. And it was.
New ambassadors joined the team of permanent ambassadors and offered tutorials for free to celebrate this special week. You will find them all on this page.
Anita M. Adamson, who founded and administers the beading group "Seed beads and more" on Facebook interviewed many intervenants of IBW and the Beadworkers Guild. Successful, happy meetings were organized in many places in many countries (learn more on the IBW website about all this).
An amazing beading marathon took place in Prague, at NaSpirale, organized by the incredible Ivona Suchmannova, who invented another extraordinary beaded bead to teach at this occasion.
I also offered a new design, the Rainbolas. I hope that you will show me your bolas!
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| Rainbolas - tiny bolas canastas |
Our fearless captain, Sylvia Fairhurst, who dedicates a ginormous amount of time to the Beadworkers Guild events and exhibits in general, started this wonderful week by a broadcasted tv-show on Jewellery Maker TV - you can view a lovely interview of Sylvia here and see her launching IBW with lovely projects here. They show the fabulous collection of beaded beads in the first minutes, it is woah!! Other amazing designers also appeared on Jewellery Maker TV, like, for example, Patty McCourt who not only taught her designs, but also launched a new bead shape, the volcano bead, and organized a Mega beaders meeting in her home town.
We are all very happy and hope that the world will bead on with renewn energy and motivation.
Now, as you may already know, during International Beading Week, we assemble the 12 elements or 12 groups of elements to create our special Year long color challenge organized in the Group on Facebook.
Here are the marvelous results of this year's cuvée:
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| Beth Clark made her very own dodecahedron |
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| Photo of the other side of Beth's dodecahedron |
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| Erin Markovitz made a marvelous collar with her very own orchids made with the "Petal to Pod" technique by Cath Thomas |
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Above: Lava beaded beads by Rebecca Flood. Belowt, Daisy wheels beaded by Sue Hargreaves based on a tutorial by Heather Collin. |
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| Dora Davies made fabulous "Darling Flowers" - The beaded centers are from the book "The beader's Floral" by Liz Thornton and Jill Devon |
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| Susannah Thomson made a lovely collar with warped squares. |
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| Amanda Capes-Davis made beautiful "Starburst Galaxy" stars, based on a design by Gwen Fisher. |
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| Joan Petitclair made this delightful collar using the trillium and morning glory patterns by Diane Fitzgerald. |
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| Ann Wilson beaded and illuminated these Star Jewels based on a tutorial by DiMarca Online. |
Please join me in congratulating all the participants on their beautiful work!
You can participate in this challenge too!!!
What is it all about? In short: each month we bead one element in the same color as the little people in the banner of IBW: We start in August, with yellow, and continue with light orange in September, and so on each month, until in July we make our last, lime green piece(s) to assemble everything during IBW. There is nothing to win but the satisfaction of completing a beautiful rainbow creation. It might seem easy at first sight but sticking to the project is a challenge, which is why it is called the Yearly color challenge.
Starting early is not mandatory, but recommended to keep up with it. It is entirely up to you to decide what item(s) you want to create for your very own rainbow of delight.
