Wednesday, September 3, 2008

2008 Bead Dreams

Every year, Bead and Button has a "Bead Dreams" competition. Bead and Button is a magazine tailored almost exclusively to bead weavers (to the chagrin of many, I've seen some angry letters to the editor in my years as a subscriber, I can imagine all the ones they didn't print). Us in the 'little bead' cult really enjoy it though. Anyways, back to the competition. This months magazine announced the 2008 Bead Dreams winners. Although there are several categories, my favorites always tend to be the seed beaded items...can't imagine why!

Sarah over at The Beaded Lily compiled a list a list of her favorites so I thought I'd share mine. Unlike Sarah, I really can't judge based on what I could see myself wearing. Creations entered into the competition are more of art than jewelry, I think. Which is fine. But they tend to be large pieces...like bigger than my head. I'm a tiny gal, some of those necklaces would swallow me whole! I also doubt they'd play nice with my hula hoop.


Ok, on to my favs:

Early Summer Wedding Bouquet
Miyuki Sugimura, Hiroko Toda, Masako Kato, and Akemi Hara
Nagoya, Japan

I don't usually dig beaded flowers but this wedding bouquet is gorgeous! The judges must have thought so too, it won Best in show. The flowers are so realistic, and the work that must have gone into it is astounding.


Babe in the Woods
Lauren Macgregor
Melbourne, Australia
laurenelisedesigns.com.au

I love this one and could totally see myself wearing it to a festival. Ever build an entire outfit around a piece of jewelry? Yeah, that would be the case. Ok maybe I DO like beaded flowers!

Jumped
Yuko Shiba
Kanagawa, Japan
Sculptural beading at it's finest, IMO. Plus I love frogs. Have a close look at it's mouth, it's a purse too!

Caribbean Beach
Mieko Ogura
Nishinn Aichi, Japan

I absolutely adore these! I'm not a girly girl at all, I don't even wear high heels, but these are too amazing not to mention here. The colors are perfect, and the bead work flawless. I'm sure they'll look lovely in an art gallery or on display in a woman's house who has lots of shoes.

Cityscape
Julie Picarello
El Dorado, Calif.
yhdesigns.com


I am amazed at the things people can do with clay. While there are several other entries that are incredibly detailed, this one is just so funky!

Click HERE to have a look at all the amazing artists who places in this years competition.

8 comments:

Designing Hilary said...

OK ... I'm totally on-the-floor gobsmacked here!

The wedding bouquet? Floors me. As do the rest. Awesome workmanship here. And I do NOT use the word "awesome" lightly. Something has to really inspire awe in me.

I'm inspired; I'm in awe.

Hot Rocks said...

Wow those are totally awesome! It is amazing what can be done with beads. I love the Babe in the Woods necklace, but the frog purse is pretty cool too!!!

Unknown said...

Unbelievable pieces -- what amazing talent, thanks for sharing these beauties!

EtsyBABY Team Captain said...

Oh My Goodness!!!! Everything is amazing!!!! I am so impressed!

Beaderjojo said...

"Babe in the Woods" is actually a headband. I'm not really a headband kinda gal but I'd make an exception for that beauty!

Michelle said...

The frog purse and the flower collar are amazing... I just sold an old West German vintage floral beaded collar and it was lovely but had nothing on these....

I can be found here on my main blog
One of a Kind Wisconsin.

Can I point something out- I noticed that you have your comments set to just google bloggers or blogspot bloggers, if you change the settings (on your comments) to accept name and url, you might get more comments. I know that it is a detraction for non blogspot bloggers to post comments on blogspot blogs that have their settings on just blogspot urls, they like the links too... just an observation I have blogspot blogs but that is not my main blog.

erinberry said...

Wow, these are really amazing!

blackmustard said...

Wow, "Babe in the Woods" is incredible! These are all amazing, but that's my favorite. I am in awe!