Prize Winning Entry!

The Melbourne Bead Expo is over for another year and I have spent the week recovering. The event is totally run by volunteers from the Bead Society of Victoria. Whilst the Show is tiny compared with those in the USA, it is one of the biggest bead shows in Australia. As such, organisers start preparing for 2012 almost as soon as 2011 is over. The members of the BSV do a wonderful job of running the show and the exhibitors are always very complimentary about the professionalism shown in its organisation. As a BSV Committee member, I am very proud to be associated with the Show and hope it continues to attract exhibitors and beaders from all around Australia into the future.

An exciting aspect of the Show for me, was being awarded Third Prize for my bracelet "Regatta 3" in the Elly Feldman Award, which is the major Member Only competition run by the BSV each year. Elly Feldman made some very nice comments about the bracelet during the award presentation and I was honoured to be one of the top five in a field of amazing entries.

Chocolate Orange

The wonderful burnt orange beads matched this cabochon so well that I just had to put them together. One of my fb friends said she thought it looked all choclatey and swirly and this lead to the title. Beading has been slow this year and I didn't feel that I was accomplishing much, but the past couple of weeks have seen a resurgence in enthusiasm. With the Melbourne Bead Expo coming up in a week's time I hope this continues.

Outback sunset

The weather during our trip to the Flinders Ranges in South Australia was not great and we finally got a few sunset pictures towards the end of the trip. I was inspired to use the gorgeous lampwork bead from Bellissimo Jewels which I bought at last year's Melbourne Bead Expo. The necklace is a spiral rope with flower embellishments. We did see a lot of wildflowers in the ranges.

Camoflage

On our recent holiday to the Flinders Ranges we saw many groups of Kangaroos and Emus in the wild. They are not always easy to see and have a bad habit of suddenly appearing on the road side and jumping out in front of the car if you are not concentrating. This picture shows two kangaroos feeding in the bush with the ranges in the background. They were fairly unconcerned at us staring at them and taking photos. There was also a faint rainbow in the distance.


The emus were often easier to see and were in much larger groups. Some had chicks at their feet. Watching an emu kneel down to wash and drink at a waterhole is an amazing sight.

The inspiration for this freeform peyote bracelet came from the beads supplied by Leah Kelly of Beads of Ambrosia, for her "What would I do with these?" Bead challenge. Whenever I enter Bead Challenges like this, the first time I see the beads there is usually a totally blank moment - OMG What WILL I do with these??? Then over a couple of days of staring at the bead pack, a vision slowly starts to appear.

Freeform is such a delightful way to use the beads as there is such a lot of freedom to chop and change. Thanks Leah, I enjoyed this one.

Regatta Bracelet with a difference.

This version of the Regatta Bracelet was made for my friend Jane. She very kindly allowed us to park our campervan at her place whilst we were attending the 50th Anniversary of the Sandringham Yacht Club/Metung Yacht Club Junior sailors' Easter Regatta.
Some fourteen years ago, our sons sailed together in an International Cadet called "Fast Charlie". The bracelet shows "Fast Charlie" with its red and white mainsail and pink/grey spinnaker. She seemed to like her bracelet and wore it during the regatta.

Regatta Bracelet

It's been quite a while since I blogged and maybe you have all dropped off from looking at it. Just had to share the news that my Regatta Bracelet has been featured on the cover of the Australian Beading Magazine this issue - it also contains project information.