Use the Muse Contest

The Big Reveal (the focal piece) has been revealed, and if you click on the link it will take you to the winners and galleries of submissions. My piece is above, it is a large (very large) brooch, which, alas, did not win any category, but was a lot of fun to make. There is a lot of fantastic bead work and artistry to see. Enjoy!

Use the Muse Contest

I don't know if we can show the "Muse" yet for the contest, so I'll show part of my project. This is only the top half of the piece. I bead embroidered on stiff stuff and then attached it to wool felt. For this contest I felt freer to use beads that were not in the kit, such as the yellow beads. The colors in the kit are not ones I would normally choose (actually, I would never choose them), so for me the challenge was two-fold, designing a piece for the contest, and using colors outside my normal palette.

Use the Muse

I'm working on my Use the Muse piece. I've tried several ideas, excitedly gathering beads of different colors, shapes, and sizes, only to discard most of them. Now I'm narrowing down my design, and it's totally unlike my usual beading. Usually my beading is dense, but this design is airy and lightweight. In fact, I'm not sure it's worthy of the contest, but it's been fun for me to do something so totally different, so I feel I have gained something new. I can't show the piece because the muse is in it, and one of the rules is that you absolutely can't share the muse until the contest is over. So check back on July 18th, when all the entries are due!