Nothing gold can stay, is a line from a Robert Frost poem of the same name. It’s also the theme for this year’s Toho Challenge.
Team BeadFX was selected to be one of the Featured Designers for the challenge. Our team consisted of Marg Yamanaka (Yama), Dwyn Tomlinson, and myself.
It was a challenge indeed, especially when our first meeting, started with me showing Marg & Dwyn a couple of driftwood sticks from my collection. Yes, it all started with a stick!
We met, brainstormed, messaged, and encountered roadblocks. The challenge beads were late arriving, the store was re-configured, Dwyn flew out of town, I had to do some frog-stitching, and also had an overuse injury in my dominant thumb (owie!). But we persevered, worked well as a team, met our deadline, and the following was the result. It’s the story of a butterfly, briefly visiting a slightly unruly garden, but only for a moment. Nothing gold can stay – magic moments fly away. The underlying theme is about the environment, conservation, endangered species, and working with found objects.
In my humble opinion, it was a very rewarding, and challenging collaboration!
I’ve stolen these photos from the announcement post on the Team Toho Beads Facebook Group (you’ll need to scroll down to see the rest). I know that Dwyn has also taken a bunch of photos, so don’t be surprised to see more later in the week. You might also like to wander over to their site to see the background information, more detail shots, and the full text about our piece.
The rest of this post has absolutely nothing to do with the Toho Challenge, but I still need to keep myself occupied.
I played around with more Freeform Brick Stitch, and this little pin is the result. It’s a fun little piece, but I still have lots to learn. By the way, we sell several types of Kilt pin findings at BeadFX. It’s a nice size for either a coat, or jean jacket.
I’ve worked my way through a couple more workshops on the Making Zen Retreat. I haven’t been doing much in the way of hand stitching lately, and I love that this retreat was a way to ease myself back into it.
These little brooches, are from Heidi Parkes, Quilted Brooches video. It all starts with a bottle cap, and the result is a lovely, little pin. If you add a magnet, it could even become a needle minder. The process is a bit addicting, so I’ve started a chapter of B.C.S.A. (bottle cap scrap anonymous). LOL! It was apparent from the comments, that I’m not the only person who is now obsessed with collecting bottle caps.
Another fascinating video, was the Shisha Samosa one from Jo Avery. I’d never done Shisha work before, but I found out that there’s a definite learning curve). I didn’t have any mirrors, so I used vintage shell buttons. Plus, I decided not to make the Samosa, but instead added the embroidery to one of my Embellished Orbs (in progress).
Sorry, the free part of the retreat is over, but you can still pay for an All-Access Pass to experience the retreat, plus bonuses. If you love to hand stitch, it’s worth it! The next free retreat is September, 2023. Scroll to the bottom, and sign up to be notified.
Last, but not least, here’s the latest update on my year-long, freeform peyote, bead-a-long piece. The theme for May is “Flower Power,” and I’m interpreting it literally.
A quick shot of some Allium in the parking lot, of my favourite grocery store. I love this time of the year!!
Nothing gold can stay, but it’s also time for me to wind down this blog post. I thoroughly enjoyed my indulgent long weekend of stitch (Victoria Day, aka May 2-4 weekend), but there’s still much left to do on my projects. How did you spend your weekend, and don’t forget that we have a 15% off almost anything in the store sale, that only runs until Wednesday, close of business in the store (6pm), but until the Cinderella Hour (midnight) for our on-line peeps!
Bead happy!
