Just Wow Number 3!

Suzanne De Jesus created this LUSCIOUS acorn basket with her husband's initials.  I have to admit that I am a sucker for acorns and if I see this basket in person, it just might end up mysteriously disappearing to my house! You can imagine how this piece was an obvious choice for the Just Wow! category.

I was inspired by photographs found in the Beaded Basket Project Web Links at Thistle Threads, specifically Web#1 photo for the beaded initials. I found some examples of right angle weaves in the blue flower of Web#3 photo that I was able to incorporate in the acorn caps. Web#5 & #7 photos inspired my oak leaves from the wire framed Peyote stitched elements, also, the silk wrapped stems.

Suzanne gave a small tutorial about how she made the leaves on our private NING social site for the online classes - I will ask her if I can repeat it on the blog.  Maybe she might teach us all how to make the acorns as well!  If you look closely you will see empty acorn caps as well!

Just Wow Number 2!

You will recognize the name of this winner as she entered two baskets.  Katie Strachan calls this one The Garden and I really enjoyed not only the subtle coloring of the basket and its components but the very careful references to traditional baskets, as explained by her paragraph description.  Katie let me know that there are a few details that are planned to be added to the figure, including lace edgings to make the costume look more 17th century.  Hopefully we can get Katie to send us an update photo when she is finished primping her little figure.  But the basket was totally lovely without!  I love the handles.

This basket was designed to complement/go inside my casket, representing Andrew Marvell’s poem “The Garden”.[i]  

What wondrous life is this I lead! Ripe apples drop about my head ;
The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wineThe luscious clusters of the vine Upon my mouth do crush their wine ;
The nectarine and curious peach
Into my hands themselves do reachThe nectarine and curious peach Into my hands themselves do reach ;
Stumbling on melons as I pass,
Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass.Stumbling on melons as I pass, Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass.

 The stumpwork figure in the basket is Marvell, reclining in his beaded garden with the curious peach (bottom center), ensnared in flowers.  The figure was specifically inspired by Hilliard’s miniature of a young man in a garden.[ii]    I built structure of basket after the round/oval originals (round Fitzwilliam basket, the Corning museum oval basket), with straight supports and no netting, used lots of elements to instead give the illusion of sides.[iii]   Many of the elements were patterned after flowers found on the Corning museum basket, which also inspired the color scheme.  The stumpwork figure of Tiny Marvell is also like the figures found on many basket bottoms, but with a twist. He’s not attached to the basket and can be taken out, like a doll – a combination of casket toy and lover’s token.

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[i] Full text of poem available at http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/marvell/garden.htm[ii] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Henry_percy_hi.jpgThis miniature is actually in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum, also home to some beaded baskets.[iii] http://www.flickr.com/photos/aimeedars/2776643760/in/pool-18927983@N00/http://plays-with-needles.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-tisket-tasket.html (first photo)

Just Wow Number 1!

I had some just amazing entries that made it really hard for me to judge.  There were three in particular that were clustered in the same category and I just had to make a new prize level for them!  So this is the first of the "Just Wow!" category that won them a Small Mirror with Doors.

Pat Richard's piece was fully enclosed and beaded and I know that you are all now saying "WOW!" This is such an amazing interpretation of a grotto scene with the kingfisher on the handle she fabricated.

This design is inspired by the 17th century traditional beaded baskets as filtered through my own design aesthetic. In other words, it is more exuberant than some of my previous work, but not quite as over the top as some of the original pieces. In researching what beading information was available on the internet, I stumbled across a pattern for a beaded Koi by Idele Gilbert and was enchanted. My original plans quickly shifted to focus on the grottoes found on so many 17th century embroideries. I covered the top and bottom rims with beads as I had done in the Nibble project, then began Peyote beading panels to cover the bottom of the basket and the inner sides with a wave pattern. The rocks/hillocks surrounding the water were beaded in assorted browns onto felt, stuffed lightly and sewn to the outside of the basket. Fronds and daffodils were created through trial and error until the scale and quality of construction satisfied me. The kingfisher was the final challenge and he was created in pieces on a stuffed felt body, and after many attempts, was finally successfully mounted on his branch, supported only by his skinny beaded wire legs.

This piece isn't a surprise from Pat - if you have seen her work in miniature before (think mini-casket that is only 2"!) you know that she is quite talented!  Maybe we can beg her to write directions...

Tricia

Winner 17th Century Traditional Category

Jackie Wyatt was the winner in the 17th century traditional basket category.  Her flower rimmed basket was a delight and reminds you heavily of the baskets she references:

For a number of years I have wanted to create my own beaded basket, but their size kept me from attempting the project. I was therefore delighted when the opportunity arose to purchase a miniature basket kit from Thistle Threads. While all of the baskets I’ve seen are remarkable, I am particularly drawn to those which have flowers and plants attached to the sides of the baskets in three dimensions. The following are several examples that I used for inspiration: 

http://historymagpie.com/tag/beaded-basket/

http://www.holburne.org/bead-basket-2/

http://plays-with-needles.blogspot.ca/2013/09/a-tisket-tasket.html  (2nd basket)

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21122/lot/394/  

After viewing a number of extant baskets online, I chose to use the beads provided with the kit due to many examples having a white and green colour scheme for the basket base. Aside from the beads provided in the kit, I primarily used size 15 beads for the flowers and leaves, with other sizes ranging from size 13 down to size 26, some vintage white hearts (blue, red) that are closer to size 11, and pearls. Many of these are vintage, probably early 20^th century or even earlier.

17th Century Beaded Basket - Multi Media Category

The first place winner in this category went to Carolyn Webb.  Her basket is called "Shakespeare's Flowers Basket

My basket was inspired by some of the flowers mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare. An educated girl of the period would have probably known about the plays and understood the references in them far better than we do today. Instead of planting my flowers in a garden, I created a basket featuring a few of the plants he referred to. I created a rose, daisy, buttercup, flax, iris, pansy, poppy, and violet plus leaves and clover in wonderful bright colors. I love flowers and it was fun to create them using the limitations that are inherent with the technique of wiring the beads in the needed shape.

 Carolyn told me that she has used card for the sides and fabric for the bottom.  She said that the beads are all either wired, wrapped or netted.  The larger of the wire rims forms the bottom (the rules said you only needed to use one of the two in the kit).  

Modern Beaded Basket Category - Winners

In this category, anything went!  You only had to use one of the two rims that were provided in the kit (Which are available again).  The first prize in this category was a tie between two creative ladies!  I loved the interpretations!

The first basket is by Janet Brandt and is titled "Fish Out of Water".  I like the fact that Janet made and added handles to the piece.  Her impecible sense of proportion had her minimize the struts that make up the sides to focus the attention from her riot of beads inwards to the grotto with the fish.

I am a 'Fish Out Of Water' when it comes to beading so it is fitting that my beaded basket should feature a small fish jumping out of the pool of water and into the waterfall! The embroidered base was eliminated from a  different project and worked better in the basket. My favorite beads were poured into a bowl, strung, then wrapped around the metal rims. I improvised the clover leaf handles. The riot of colors and shapes that make up ethnic embroideries are the inspirations for most of my work. It was fun to try something new.

I have returned and see the future and its name is pollution......

Janet tied with Renee Fields, whose entry had a special place in my heart for her use of technology!  I really, really wish she would post a little video of her piece so we could all see the lights!  Her piece highlights the modern effects on the grotto that the mermaid would have been swimming in.  Hers has

colored LED lights inside the mica flames - inside the little tires!  Such a cool statement piece!  Note the mirror in the Mermaid's hand and the silk wrapped purl used for her hair.

My basket is modern.  Although I couldn’t show it in the photo, the flames are lit by rose colored LED lights.  The mermaid has resurfaced in the Cuyahoga River in 1969 amid pollution and the river is burning.  Mica sheets are used for the flames.

Honorable Mentions - Beading Contest

Today I would like to show you a selection of the honorable mention winners for the 17th Century Beaded Basket Contest and give you a bit about their inspirations

Our first winner in the 17th Century Traditional Basket category is Joanna Enzmann of Massachusetts, she used a second boarder of woven beads in a sampler alphabet to embellish her basket.  As Joanna mentioned, there just wasn't enough room for the last letter - Z - around the piece.  But no matter, it is lovely!

Katie Strachan (she entered twice) won a copy of Robe for her entry called Anniversary Basket.  Katie

gave us the inspiration for her basket:

This basket was inspired by the themes of love and courting couples on many historic baskets.   It made me think that a basket might be the perfect gift for an important anniversary.  In the 17^th century baskets were made by young girls celebrating young, beginning love – an engagement, perhaps a marriage or a christening.  It seemed fitting that so many years later, a decorated basket would be made to celebrate love fulfilled – my parents’ 40^th wedding anniversary.

In designing this basket I adapted historic elements – netted bottom and sides, sprays of peyote stitched flowers and leaves decorating the interior of the basket – to the modern tastes of the recipient. I was inspired specifically by the MFA Boston basket (fittingly, labeled as a “gift basket”), its slightly darker color scheme and the sparkle of the beads.[1] The first elements I beaded for my basket – the pair of

carnations in the upper right corner – were inspired by similar flowers on the MFA basket.  As I worked, I looked at the layout of decorations on the MFA basket, how flowers and leaves were arranged in sprays, the variety of leaves and blooms, and tried to emulate them in my design.  Essentially, modern love expressed in a 17^th century form.
 

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[1] http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/gift-basket-48017

Caren Scarbrough entered into the Modern Multimedia Category with her basket of movable flowers.  Caren said of this entry:

I decided on a basket with moveable flowers so a child could play at flower arranging.  All of the flowers are on wire. The brown piece started as a forest floor for the basket, but I decided it needed a border so it became a mat or a cover if all the flowers are simply placed in the basket.   

You can see how her flowers can be put into the basket in multiple ways in the following photos.  I also added a close up of the rose which I really liked!  The folding of a beaded formation was really neat!

More winners tomorrow!

Tricia