Honeycomb - Toronto Bead Society 2025 Bag of Beads Challenge

This year’s Bag of Beads looked beautiful in the bag — warm honey with a touch of turquoise blue. It even came with real amber chips! And some sort of button earring stumpers with smashed down posts, clips, and a load of tiny headpins.

Contents of the Bag of Beads

The Toronto Bead Society (TBS) Bag of Beads challenge is to use at least one from each of the bags in the kit we were given. We could add any other needed supplies from our own stash.

What to do?? No muses for the longest time. The recurring theme that kept coming was “honeycomb”.

Inspiration

The next challenge was how do I create a honeycomb that would hold its hexagonal cell? The logical answer was bead embroidery. But the next decision was, “Will it be another work of art in a shadow box like the last three challenges (Nautilus, Mid-Century Modern Living, Secret Garden)?”, OR “Can I make this challenge be wearable?

 “JUST DO IT!” 

I cut a piece of blue Stiff Felt left over from a previous challenge. Then I tried a few different ways to stitch a honeycomb cell. The most effective way was to draw a 1cm. cell with a pencil, then stitch a light-coloured rough-cut satin beads individually, but then add another on each line. By stitching a metallic gold 13/o seed bead in the corner, a cell shape was created. 

Since I was creating on the fly, I kept drawing a few more hexagonal cells on the blue foundation, then stitching down satin beads with seed beads defining the corners. With time, five rows of cells felt right for the height of a medallion and five and a half cells were best for the width.

Next, the cells needed to be filled in with honey. I tried stitching down the opaque and metallic sienna seed beads in a cell, but it was very sad. Then I strung segments of 1 op. sienna seed, 1 met. sienna seed, 1- 4mm round amber pressed-bead, followed by 1 met. and 1 op. sienna. 

Each segment was secured in between satin beads on one side and pulled across the cell, then secured on other side between satin beads. 

Once five segment strings were secured across all cells, I framed them with a string of alternating single turquoise opaque 8/o seed beads and #2 Czech s/l bugles. The turquoise frame needed to be couched down. So, I trimmed the Stiff Felt foundation fairly close to the honeycomb.

Then stitched down the bugle frame between beads.

STRINGS AND STUMPERS

Next I had to deal with the stumpers. I stitched on the clips to the underside of the metallic button earrings

Then glued them down with E6000.

Since this was going to be a wearable piece, I strung a fine beading wire with alternating turquoise 8/o beads and amber 4mm round beads. Luckily, there were just enough round beads in the Bag! 

To secure the string to the buttons, I added a crimp, wiggled the wire through the underside openings of metallic button, wove the tail back through the crimp and pressed it firmly to stop the strung bead wire from slipping.

ADDING THE BACKING 

Once the string assembly was complete, I stitched down the clips to the back of the bead foundation. The metallic button was left exposed because it was a design element transitioning from the Honeycomb medallion to the fancy bead string.

Luckily, I had a piece of faux leatherette in my stash. I trimmed it to the medallion's size and basted it through all the layers so I could bead a clean finish. A traditional 3-bead finish would not work because of the turquoise bugle/seed frame! Don’t know if anyone ever did this before, but I figured out a way to catch the top and bottom through a sienna seed bead for a systematic stitch. Practical and neat. 

This is my creative solution dealing with the situation at hand. In the end, it looks like a bead sandwich layer between the Honeycomb and leatherette backing!

FRINGE FINISH

In another little bag were two novel beads which needed attention. Since the rule is, “use at least one from each bag”, I chose the round “world” bead instead of the chunky sienna tube bead.

To deal with this heavy bead, I tried suspending it from 8/ turquoise beads in the centre-front of my Honeycomb medallion. I figured surrounding fringes would soften the look.

I like playing with color and shapes in fringes. There were chiseled flat coppery beads (which I donated to the cause) in another bag. As well as a bag and short string of real amber chip beads. I felt there needed to be some zing between these interesting beads. In my stash I had a few turquoise chip slivers which worked really well in between the chiseled bead and amber. Of course, a turquoise seed bead at the bottom would not only holds beads on each fringe from falling, but add the ultimate zing.

The fringe is very organic. Each one varies in length and look because of natural material differences. This was not about perfection, but feel. 

The short headpin was a headache. I managed to thread a few beads on a headpin and attached it to the clip. See the highlighted pin on the photo. Challenge met, but not seen!

This Challenge was fun in the end because I let the beads and materials direct the creative process once I had the honeycomb theme and wanted it to be wearable. 

The Lelitky Collection

 After more than a half a century of adorning my Family Christmas Tree in Michigan, I finally got my treasured white satin ornaments returned to me in Toronto.

Even the white curly ribbon hanging bows were pretty much intact! The satin ornaments held up very well after 50 years decorating our family tree and three years of being smushed in a box. Apparently the shimmering decor bothered the cat, so the new tenants tossed all the ornaments into a box and banished them to basement.

Being a savvy designer now, I chose to call them my LELITKY COLLECTION. ‘Lelitky’ is a Ukrainian term for sequins, much nicer sounding than ‘payetky’. Since I created the sequins-studded satin ornaments in the 1970s, I put my maiden name on the hang tag. The snowflake is mine from my Fanwheel Snowflake Collection and is the perfect touch for an ornament collection!

Satin thread-wrapped balls first emerged in the 1960s to stand out on the aluminum trees which came into vogue then. At first satin threads were wound onto styrofoam balls, but later were also available on hollow plastic forms. The best way to secure the sequins to the ball was to use fine 1/2” straight pins, the kind which were used for putting up decorations on bulletin boards (my other afterschool activity). I bought myself a box of pins and have vivid memories of very sore fingers pushing pins into hard plastic just to get my embroidered designs right!

I bought a few boxes of white satin balls and was on the lookout for unusual shapes. I found a box of three bell-shaped ornaments and then two different sizes of squished saucer-like balls. 

For me, the satin balls provided a blank canvas for creating embroidered designs using sequins for each cross-stitch. I used charted Ukrainian embroidery books and plates for reference and had an artistic license for changing sequins colors for festive ornaments.

I would work on them in the evenings during my later high school, early college years. I enjoyed the creative process because each ornament was different. It was a perfect opportunity to adorn our family tree with contemporary Ukrainian-inspired ornaments.

There was no end to the creative possibilities until I ran out of satin balls.

I have fond memories of Christmases in Detroit. My embroidered satin ornaments were always on the family tree. Here’s a photo of the one and only Christmas my uncle and godfather from  Rome managed to join us for Sviat Vechir, the Christmas Eve meal. We dropped him off at the airport on Christmas Day.

Fr. Lubomyr Husar is home visiting our family, 1983

Here’s my mother Martha decorating her tree in her condo with granddaughters Katya and Lesia.

Decorating the tree with granddaughters, 1996 

After a while, my mother wisened up and bought a faux tree. She decorated it with my white sequins-embroidered ornaments and a few other favourites. For the next few years, the tree was carried fully dressed up and downstairs in time for Christmas. Though she passed away in 2001, the tradition continued for decades. Instantly decorated tree always set in the same corner for Christmas = tradition.

Classic group photo by the Christmas tree, 2017

In the last two decades, this is the tree I remember when I visited my Michigan home for the holidays.

But not any more…

I am glad my ornaments look great after fifty plus years. Now, I refurbished them by cutting off the curly white ribbon, added a fine gold cord and LELITKY hang tag for a new life. Even bought a special TIDY stacking case to keep the ornaments safe off-season.

I would like to donate them to the UkrainianAmerican Archives and Museum in Hamtramck, MI, because I created the Collection while a student in Detroit. 

I would love to see a Christmas tree in the museum decorated with The Lelitky Collection of embroidered ornaments by Maria Wasylkewycz. It would be an great example of an Ukrainian Christmas Tree in the 1970s. If not, the UAA Museum can sell each Ukrainian-inspired ornaments individually in the Gift Shop to raise funds. 

Rushnychok - Canadians helping Ukraine

 The 34th Convention of the UCWLC Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada theme was “A strong Canadian community united in spirit with Ukraine”. To this end I designed and embroidered a rushnychok (a small ritual cloth) for inspiration.

𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗱𝗮'𝘀 𝗔𝗺𝗯𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗱𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗨𝗸𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲, 𝗛𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗮 𝗖𝗺𝗼𝗰, speaks about her role in Ukraine at the banquet.

Firstly, embroidery unites us with Ukraine because we also embroider in the diaspora. The logical solution was to embroider the main theme elements in one composition. The idea of ​​a cross surrounded by tridents comes from an online photo of heavily embroidered patriotic embroidery from years past. The tryzub trident is an important symbol for those who fought for Ukraine's independence 100 years ago and those who protect it now.

Inspiration

I visualized a maple leaf on both sides to symbolize strong Canadian women.

Addding maple leaves

Second, to implement my idea, the easiest thing for me was to sit down and embroider the pattern in time to use a photo of the embroidered motifs as a logo on the convention book and banquet program.

It starts with a cross

I was wondering what to do with the embroidery itself? The idea came to embroider a rushnychok (a small ‘rushnyk’ ritual cloth), because it is our sacred tradition to drape them on icons.

Draped on the icon

At first I embroidered the cross with a dark navy outline exactly as it appeared on the historic photo. It looked black, dark and overall depressing.

Stitching the tryzub

So, I ripped out the initial dark outline around the cross and added a bright blue base to the stylized stems below the diagonal tryzub. This lightened up the look and better represented the spirit of what I was trying to convey.

Completed cross

The challenge was to find appropriately-sized and styled maple leaves that would fit with the embroidered focal design. I settled on Magnificent Minis “Fallen Leaves” by STITCHNMOMMA. These maple leaves were the closest to realistic maple leaves with veins and stems facing right and left.

Stitching the maple leaf

A photo taken by my iPhone shows the weave and textures. A scan of the fabric just showed the embroidery against a white background and was ideal for the programme booklet.

Image showing the weave and textures

I repeated the embroidery on the other side and a rushnychok was coming alive. To hem the runner I pulled two warp threads, folded over the edge and proceeded to create posts in a one-step stitch called ‘merezhka’ in Ukrainian. I finished each end with the fine fringe created by pulling out the weft threads. 

Finishing the fringe

It was the perfect length when draped over the Patroness of the UCWLC icon! The rushnychok was blessed by Bishop Bryan Bayda and in place throughout the convention and banquet.

Maria with rushnychok-draped icon at her St. Demeterius UCWLC branch meeting. Photo: Martha Humeniuk

From an idea to make a theme come alive to rediscovering cross-stitch embroidery, I’m honoured my composition captured the essence of strong Canadian community united in spirit with Ukraine.

Cover of the Convention programme booklet