"Embellishing Your World" show

Maria and Naomi Smith with a printout of the opening slide

It was great sharing my "Embellishing Your World: Beading & Surface Designs" with fellow beadmates on Nov 10th at the Toronto Bead Society. This was an inspirational seminar with beadwork examples and stories from around the world.

What was special that evening was that Naomi, a fellow TBS member, brought her collection of First Nations Beadwork. I featured photographs of her collection in the first five slides of my PowerPoint. We combined the best of two worlds for the benefit of our members. I projected images and pointed out interesting details about the unique artifacts of the Mohawk and Tuscarora Nations. Naomi brought the genuine articles so people could then see them up close. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for TBS members.

For my half of the display, I brought my collection of beaded "Pysanky" eggs. Several were beaded by Vira Pavlova Witkovska plus other bead artists from Ukraine. The beaded "Lilacs" were made by Oksana, a young student of an after-school Craft Program in Kolomyya. They're so life-like it's hard to believe they're just beads on twisted wires! Amazing... Love it!

Maria's collection of beaded 'pysanky' eggs, ornaments and bead wire "Lilacs"

I'll be presenting "Embellishing Your World..." to the new West Toronto Beading Guild on Mar 8, 2011 at their regular monthy meeting. We're going to combine it with a hands-on beading workshop on learning how to do the versatile Diagonal Weave. I'm looking forward to inspiring the new beaders!

If you'd like an inspirational program by a passionate speaker, just let me know.... I'll be happy to share this and other beadwork presentations.