Beaded Basket Contest - Announcing the Winners!

Beaded Basket Now in Collection of Holburne Museum, Bath, England

Back in August I announced a 17th century beaded basket contest to help raise funds for the Holburne Museum in Bath to purchase a stunning piece.  We were successful in selling almost 300 basket kits to raise the funds.  The added bonus was a contest to win some wonderful prizes.  Well, Friday was the due date for entries and there are some stunners!

I am announcing here the winners today and over the next week I will be showing many of the pieces for inspiration to everyone out there.

My Interpretation of the Small Baskets, Instructions on website

The genesis of the contest were three little beaded baskets that came out of an embroidered casket.  The baskets were almost identical and strongly resembled the way the structure is made for the large christening baskets.  I had wondered if these were teaching projects to prepare a girl to make a large one, or smaller items made by workshops to sell.

I had the rims made for a slightly larger basket and kitted the beads.   While we ran out of beads; I just got a new shipment of rims last week and so I am going to offer them on my site now (should be posted later tonight) if anyone wants to make the original green one or design their own -- there will be plenty of eye candy coming with what every one else has done!

So without further talking!  Here are the winners of the Beaded Basket Contest:

Grand Prize (Flat Casket)

Rachael Kinnison

Runner Up (Fancy Mirror)

Rose Yamakawa

Just Wows! (Mirror with Doors)

Patricia Richards

Suzanne De Jesus

Katie Strachan (The Garden)

First Prize 17th Century Traditional (Copy of In Fine Style)

Jackie Wyatt

Honorable Mention 17th Century Traditional (Copy of Robe)

Katie Strachan (Anniversary Basket)

Joanna Enzmann

Jonatha Caspian

First Prize 17th Century Multimedia (Copy of In Fine Style)

Carolyn Webb

Honorable Mention 17th Century Multimedia (Copy of Robe)

Svetlana Knappmann

First Prize Modern Multimedia (Copy of In Fine Style)

Janet Brandt (tied)

Renee Fields (tied)

Honorable Mention Modern Multimedia (Copy of Robe)

Caren Scarbrough

Leigh Aldrich