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. 

Nautilus - Toronto Bead Society 2024 Challenge

This year’s Bag of Beads Challenge had a lovely cohesive neutral theme spread across 16 ziploc bags. It was an elegant one, with unusual pearl cabochons (stumpers), large pearls set in copper bases (it is a finding, or a part of some fastener?), and fancy rhinestone cup chain on shaggy trim (stumper) plus thirteen (13) more bags of beads in all shapes and sizes.

Since I prefer beadweaving, I first tried bezelling around a pearl cabochon. Not easy when you’re working in thin air and don’t have micro beads to shape a bezel to hold a flat-backed pearl. Plus how do you finish the back which no one will probably see? 

Forget about my “Snowman Family” idea!

Next, I had an idea for an ammonite which would unfurl from the center to wider chambers which I could fill in with beads. Once I started the Google Image search for ammonites, I discovered nautilus fossils. Ammonites are usually shown cut in half to reveal the incredible inside while nautilus are 3-dimensional living fossils.

Fleshing out the idea — materials

I settled on Madagascar Direct’s Nautilus Fossils photo because of its graphic simplicity and coloration. I could visualize bead embroidering a nautilus using the beads in the TBS 2024 Bag. The website definition: “Nautilus fossils are the fossilized remains of ancient molluscs, a part of the cephalopod family along with octopuses, squid, and extinct ammonites.”

I printed out the nautilus photo in a few sizes to test out my idea of using the large pearl-set-in-copper in the center of the coiling and add five pearl cabochons to start the fossil spiral whorls. 

Now I had a ‘Master Nautilus’ photo to refer to while bead embroidering. I had artistic license for this Challenge, but needed reference for the shape and shading to be realistic.

I have always admired mosaics where the artist would incorporate unusual shapes and colors into their art and work around them. To me glass beads are like colored pieces of inlaid stone and glass. In 2010 I took a “Goddess Freeform Bead Embroidery Pendant” workshop with bead artist and teacher extraordinaire, Sherry Serafini. Learning creative beading around objects, creating textures by securing beads in different ways was a liberating experience which stayed with me forever!

Since this was going to be a 3-D bead embroidery full of texture, I needed a stiff ground to embroider on. It needed to be a blue color to showcase the iridescent nautilus. I bought a Good Felt Bead Foundation, which was described to be “a semi-stiff foundation on which beads are sewn to create bead embroidery designs. A needle glides through it, but it is stiff enough to support your projects without hoops or card backings.” (I was disappointed in the end when the weight of my nautilus caused some ‘cracks’/folds in the foundation.) 

I purchased my third 9x9 shadow box frame in a blond woodfinish from Michaels. It’s the perfect frame for 3-dimensional art because of the depth and canvas board for pinning.

At home I pulled out my 2024 Bag of Beads along with the leftovers from the TBS 2009 Challenge. The contents were in the same ivory tones, but had a few more interesting spares, i.e. butterscotch-colored rounds and facetted glass beads with a caramel-colored core. They came in handy for stitching onto the rest of the whorls of my nautilus.

I needed to test the placement of my nautilus in the frame, as well as figure out what I was going to do with the rhinestone cup chain trim.

Drawing a nautilus on the blue felt

Old school methods never die!! The best way to get the main lines onto the blue felt was to make a photo copy of my master. Next, cut along the main septa (color bands) to make thin channels for a pencil to draw lines on the felt.

TIP: When cutting lines with an Exacto knife or OLFA Multi-purpose cutter, use a self-healing mat. Press down the paper firmly as you cut slits along the lines. Rotate the paper to allow for smooth curved lines. STOP short so you have a stencil-like sheet without tears which you can position on top of the foundation. Cut a second line 1/8” (2mm) away from the first cut. Score both ends of each section and remove the paper line to reveal the slit.

I positioned the cut-out stencil on the blue felt foundation. I left the extra space above and below the nautilus for final tweaking in the end after my bead embroidery was done.

Using an old-fashioned wooden pencil, I carefully traced the lines between the slits. I was able to press firmly and had full control of the drawing the line. Mechanical pencil leads would break if pressed down too hard while drawing.

Next, I sized up the ‘master inspiration’ and frame. I connected the pencil lines on the felt for a smooth drawing. Then I reviewed the project and figured out a plan of attack.

Start of bead embroidery

I positioned the center pearl and pearl cabochon in position on the blue felt. For the record, this is where artistic license kicks in. The pencil lines on the felt were for reference only! It was up to me to try to reimagine a nautilus using the beads and stumpers in the bag. So here’s my bead embroidery story.

Thanks to a friend, I was told E6000 glue holds cabs to felt securely, so there is no need to decrease the bezelling as in my first test sample.

The outline of each pearl cabochon is purely decorative because the glue seal is strong after sitting to dry for 24 hours. I bead embroidered a bezel using the cylindrical lustre-coated ivory beads around each pearl cabochon so closely, I could not add a second or third peyote row even if I wanted! I was satisfied with the clean single bezel outline. 

Next, I used 8/o Hex beads from my stash to ‘draw’ the septa (dividing walls between chambers). I was ‘painting’ with bead colors following my Master photo reference. So, I played with matte grey, taupe and light gold Hex beads. It was interesting to note the names color assigned to the Hex beads by Miyuki because I perceived them to be as described. Color placement helped create a realistic rendition per my Master nautilus photo.

For the peristome edge where the tentacles and fine organisms reside, I uses the tri-color assortment of 6/o seed beads in one of the TBS bags. I carefully placed the the dark ones near the center core and lighter ones towards the lower edge. Note the transition using three colors of beads.

For the rest of the body chamber, my Master photo showed wider taupe-grey chambers. I used the large butterscotch beads from the challenge along with facetted caramel-cores from TBS 2009. I needed large beads to make the transition from the very high pearl cabs to the peristome edge. From the mixed bag of colored pearls, I stitched down some grey pearls at either end of the butterscotch rounds, then smaller grey ones to shape the body chamber. The last chamber has a mix of ivory pearls and grey. Size and color mattered.

Most of my bead embroidery was done on the sofa while watching (listening to) television. Working in a more reclining position with a tray of beads on my lap allowed me to take my glasses off for close-up work. I can see better where to position the beads and insert the needle, but have to put them back on for reference and picking up beads.

It was a constant on and off with glasses as I filled in other beads from the bag. Some beads, i.e. yellow-lined frosted chicklets were hidden under other bead to help create a textured shaped. The bronze-edged twisted Corolla bugles filled in the last chamber. I also added a smaller twisted one from my stash. I kept building the nautilus with beads of every description from each of the bags. In the end I added the really large crow beads with random placement on top of previous layers of texture for zing and dimension.

I thought I was finished late one night. I am showing of my finished Nautilus at 1:00 am.

The next morning I critically looked at my nautilus before framing it. The super textured lower portion overtook the sweeping nautilus whorl. I ripped off the glass triangle edge by the peristome edge. Then I proceeded to carefully add smaller ivory seed beads, metallic bronzes and stitching brass-lined crystal AB 10/o, 8/o and occasional 6/o seed beads to extend and shape the top pearl cabochon whorls. A few glass triangle on top added sparkle. In the end, I am satisfied with my bead embroidered nautilus.

Assembly for framing

Time to frame and deal with elephant in the room, the fuzzy rhinestone cup chain trim. This required figuring the best position for my beaded nautilus and where exactly the trim should be. Careful pencil guides marked where to cut off the excess blue felt and stitch the cup chain.

Following my penciled line, I stitched down the cup chain trim carefully by coming up between the rhinestone cups. This underlined the nautilus and took care of the requirement of using everything in the Bag of Beads.

Rechecked the positioning of my nautilus and cut off the excess blue felt. I used some E6000 glue again to hold the heavy bead embroidery to the back board and attempted to press down the felt fold ‘cracks’. To try to flatten out the background, I added a few thin pins into the folds. Thank goodness the shadow box frame come with a canvas board one can pin into!

Voila! My framed Nautilus and Master inspiration. Nice to know the glass of the shadow box will protect my beaded Nautilus, but it is impossible to photograph because of glass reflections. I’ll put the glass in after the Feb 14th REVEAL to the Toronto Bead Society.

Here I am pleased I completed the 2024 Bag of Bead Challenge and have a third shadow box Nautilus to add to my bead room gallery along with 2023 Mid Century Modern and 2023 Secret Garden.

Mid-Century Modern Living - Toronto Bead Society 2023 Challenge

Something very different for this year’s Toronto Bead Society (TBS) Challenge! The hardest part was getting an idea, a theme, once we saw the contents of Bag of Beads.

The craft papers with distinct Retro patterns were the stumper this year! Can’t wait to see what the other bead society members come up with at the February REVEAL!

Since my condo suite was getting all windows and doors replaced in mid-December, I was in tune with furniture, moving, and shlepping everything 6 feet away from the window wall. Once the new windows were installed, we had a chance to redecorate. At first, my idea was WINDOWS, but with three distinct craft paper patterns in my bag, furnishing a room in the mid-century style made perfect sense.

To make Mid-Century Modern Living happen, I needed a reference of furniture styles so I could beadweave a sofa and chair with beads in the bag. Thanks to an Etsy seller for their clip art of mid-century furniture for inspiration.

For the ultimate presentation, I found the quintessential shadow box at the downtown Michael’s store. A navy wood square frame with a linen-covered board for pinning was purchased the night the windows were supposed to be installed. Now that I had the shadow box frame, my living room with beadwoven 3-D furniture and accessories was ready to begin!

The Mid-Century Modern sofa

I used three stitching techniques to create my light blue sofa in the same size as my printed furniture inspiration. 

The challenge with starting a long section of mosaic (peyote) stitch is making the beads line up for the next row. A quick tip from beading friends made for a clean start and easy to see where to add the third row of beads.

TIP: Slide in a long loomwork needle to separate the first row of the mosaic stitch.

This stitch is easy when you can see the high points and know where to add the next bead row. I created a tufted back effect by adding single copper-lined turquoise seed bead every three beads. First, I started with Even-count Peyote with an easy turn, but my tuft button design forced an Odd-Count variation.

As you can see, the long needle has been removed once a beaded fabric was created. Having an assortment of beads around is best for auditioning beads for different effects. Beading in hand is my favourite while watching (listening to) TV

To create a 3-D cushion for my sofa, I added a row of 6/o blue-lined topaz pony beads to the last row of light blue seed beads.

From here I was able to Right Angle Weave (R.A.W.) rows of pony beads. First, I tested the idea, then I beadwove the appropriate number of rows of pony beads for the sofa cushion.

Next, I had to zip together the pony beads into a cushion. This was done by folding over the flat pony bead fabric and carefully continuing the R.A.W. stitch to make it 3-dimensional.

For the sofa arms, I started to Brick stitch some seed beads along the edge of the Peyote stitched back and cushion. I started with copper-lined turquoise seeds first, then topped the two rows with light blue beads from the Bag Challenge. There was a lot of auditioning and shaping here.

A final addition of single light blue seeds between the bottom of the front cushion help turn this mass of beadweaving into a Mid-Century Modern sofa. I added #2 brown Iris bugle feet like the sofa illustration.

The Mid-Century Modern occasional chair

Next, I want to recreate a 3-D chair pictured here in coral seed beads with navy iris twist bugle frame and arms. 

When creating flat 3-dimensional objects, you need to add other colored-beads to represent the contours in the illustrated chair. So, the flat Ndebele stitched coral piece would not work in my Mid-Century living room. 

I started a new piece with a ladder stitch of two metallic chocolate brown seed beads for the cushion side and coral seeds for the back. Then, I added several rows of Ndebele in appropriate colors before shaping the beaded fabric to match the illustrated chair.

Once satisfied with the chair back, I started a ladder for the seat cushion. This took many tries to create a visually pleasing seat. I’m just showing the process and final variation. 

Creating an independent chair took a lot of effort. Here I am at my clean beading room table after the window replacement!

There were many starts and frog stitches in trying to get the shape and contours just right.

This required dropping beads and telling stitches where to go. No right or wrong way of beading. Just a matter of getting a self-contained desired effect!

I kept fitting my beadwork to the furniture image.

This Ndebele stitched cushion had many looks. This is last variation. I was constantly referring to the illustration for how to handle the chair arms once the cushion was ready.

To shape the cushions, I added very fine 15/o seed beads to smooth out the choppy edge created by the Ndebele stitch.

Long twisted navy iris bugle were going to be the arms and frame of my occasional chair. However, because of the length, I had to supplement #2 and #3 twisted bugles from my stash to get the appropriate lengths and effects. The front arm of the chair was first cobbled together over the top of the beadwoven cushion.

For my chair to be realistic, I needed to add the other arm from behind, as well as chair legs. Note how just placing a long bugle across the lower seat bottom creates a realistic looking chair. It’s all about perspective and illusions. 

Torchiere and potted plant

There were many odd beads that still needed to be used for this challenge. In the bag with the cameo, an optional stumper, there were four jade chicklets and a few oversized pearls.

I stitched together the four jade chicklets into a base for a floor lamp. To add some interest, I added navy iris seed beads, and 8/o matte teal beads in between. I strung a coral seed between the long twisted navy iris bugles for interest and topped it off with an oversized pearl for the bare light bulb. 

My living room needed some greenery so I created a tall floor plant to put by my sofa. I stitched together white chicklets from my stash for the base, but it desperately needed decoration and toning the whiteness down. I strung brown iris seed beads vertically between the grooves. Then, proceeded to brace them across the top and bottom. The coral zing serves as the turn around as I was trying to get cooperation from the vertical strings of beads. I netted the bottom of the pot since this will be viewed from all angles.

Since I was going to use the coralling twig technique to create the foliage, I strung a core of 8/o beads between white pearl 6/o pony beads which were going to be hidden under plant leaves. I strung metallic dark teal 10/o seed beads as branches from which I would create leaves. Each leaf has a random assortment of five shades and finishes of teal and green seed beads. The light green seeds from The Bag were generally placed at the tips of the leaves which were created as a loop was formed when the needle was inserted through the dark metallic string in random places.

Coralling is best done in hand because firm tension is important. The leaves should stick out all over and overlap when branches cascade.

Hanging globe and curtains

Another challenge was dealing with the diagonally drilled black cubes and silver-lined blush seed beads.  This is where the globe lamp idea came. By stitching strings of nine seeds all around and through the diagonal cube, I managed to camouflage the black color. By sewing the globe onto a chain link, a chic fixture was born. So, I doubled it for my Mid-Century Modern living room! 

I decided to add a curtain from blush fine diamond craft paper. Homes in the 1950s-60s had smaller windows so shorter curtains would be perfect. This way they would not overtake the nice triangular wallpaper.

As I was designing, I kept on laying out the pieces on the wallpaper to see what goes where. What else can I add? What should I take away? My original thought of adding metal triangle corners was quashed once I saw everything coming together. These would have been a touch of nostalgia since they came from my mom’s T-shirt.

All the thread tails were used to stitch down the different pieces.

The curtains took a bit of playing around with length and finger folding. I took advantage of the repeat of the fine diamond print for establishing the depth of the pleats. The fine line around the diamond helped keep the stitches uniform with a small #1 bugle inserted between pleats. 

I had to use a really fine needle to go through the bugles and am glad I managed to thread a heavier bonded nylon string because this a craft paper, not fabric. I’m thrilled I was able to double the length of curtains by clever overlap of the repeat pattern. The biggest challenge was the start and end on both ends. A seed bead on each end gave me something to anchor and knot the thread around.

Stitching the living room to the craft paper

Before stitching my furniture to the wallpaper, I reinforced it to a wide double-side backing. The navy hexagon craft paper ‘rug’ was cut short. It was attached to the wall with double sided tape and positioned to allude to a low horizon.

The sofa was the first item to be stitched down. Positioning it just right to be believable was a challenge. I was thrilled I could carefully stitch the pieces rather than resort to glue. I had full control of with the needle and thread because I could go through beads and tack between bead stitches.

Stitching down the potted plant was pretty easy. I could position the foliage as needed; cover the pearl beads in the core; pull thread tighter so leaves stand out. I even added in a few light green beads near the bottom for sparkle.

The torchiere was also easy to stitch down thanks to the graphic pattern on the paper. I tacked between the coral seed beads so the bugles lay nice and flat. Once this was in place, it was time to carefully position the occasional chair. Note, it was finally placed much lower, closer to the front to create a comfy layout. Careful stitching of the chair cushions and tacking the bugle arms and chair legs were relatively easy.

To stitch down the curtains, it was necessary to tack between the pleats near the top. I also tacked near both lower ends so the curtains ‘hang straight’.

The chain links of the globe lights were stitched along to top right. One globe was hung lower than the other for balance. Note how taut the torch light is in this side view. Everything is securely stitched. 

I pinned my Mid-Century Modern Living scene to the linen background with the white pins provided with the shadow box.

The glass of the shadow box will protect my beadwoven furniture and decor, but it’s impossible to photograph without glass reflections. 

This Bag of Bead Challenge was fun once I got the idea. I enjoyed looking at different furniture images and figuring out how can I best beadweave them as stand alone pieces. It helped having knowledge of a host of stitching techniques and combining them as needed for the desired 3-dimensional furniture.