Wednesday, December 9, 2009

A Show of Hands

This beautiful beading was created by our members in our recent Hand Challenge which was conducted on both Beaded Art Dolls group and BeadDreamz Group. Congratulations to all who completed the challenge. These are certainly impressive works of art!


Tuesday, September 22, 2009

2008-09 Calendar Bead-Along Comes To A Close!

Aaaaaaanndd the winner is - GILBERT!



(Post edited to include favorite winner after close of poll)

Can you believe it's been a whole year? We started a new type of bead-along in September, 2008 and it took off like wildfire! The object was to create one doll each month, and it continued through August, 2009. Now that the year is over, it's time to choose our favorite doll for the entire year!

It was hard to decide how to present the dolls that were submitted because each and every one was unique and beautiful. There were nearly 100 dolls submitted throughout the entire year. Great job group! But that was too many to fit into one poll. After much discussion, the decision was made. For the months of September, 2008 through February, 2009, we had a monthly favorites poll and a winner was chosen by the group members. Participation dwindled a bit after February, and so we had a favorites poll to choose a winner from the combined months of March and April 2009. Another poll chose a winner from the combined months of May through August 2009. This leaves us with the following 8 favorites, each having won one of the polls mentioned above. A poll will be created in the next day or so for group members to choose their favorite for the entire year. Without further ado, here are your finalists for the 2008-09 Beaded Art Dolls Calendar Bead-Along:

Monday, June 15, 2009

Beautiful Babushkas Bead-Along!

Check out these beautiful Babushkas! Our members have harnessed their "inner Russians" to create these one-of-a-kind works of art. The bead-along was in progress during March/April/May and was extended a couple of weeks into June. The results were worth waiting for! Everyone did a wonderful job! Thanks to everyone who participated!  These dolls are just a few that were submitted.  Please click on photo to view larger image.





You may be thinking, "what is a babushka?" The word "babushka" has multiple meanings. It is the Russian word for Grandmother. It is also the word for a triangular headscarf, often worn by a Russian peasant woman. Many people use the word to describe Russian nesting dolls (see photo below), but the correct word for the dolls is actually "Matryoshka."

If you're interested in the history of the Russian nesting doll, here's a very informative link for you:
http://russian-crafts.com/nesting-dolls/history.html

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Spread the Love Swap and Challenge

In February 2009, some of our more romantic members wanted to celebrate Valentine's Day by beading a small doll to 'Spread the Love'. Jena, generously hosted this lovely project and clearly enjoyed her topic so much, she just couldn't stop. Some of the ladies just wanted to bead a doll for keeping, or secretly gifting to a very special loved one, whilst others beaded a little loving creation to swap with a beady buddy from the group. I think you will agree, the results are a beautiful tribute to the sentiment of Valentine's Day and will forever be a reminder of a loving occasion and beautiful friends.

These dolls were swapped between members:


and these dolls were beaded as a challenge.