bead a creative tiara

Who is ready to have some fun?

Nancy Eha the Queen Mother of Royal Order of Bead Explorers, announces the Embellished Tiara Challenge. You can bead, paint, fuse, foil, collage, stitch, dye, anything goes! Just use the challenge tiara pattern and the challenge bead packet as a starting point.

There is no entry fee, but there are fantastic prizes. Two Viewers’ Choice fabric embellishment prize packages each worth over $200 will be awarded. Voting will be done by Nancy Eha’s eNews subscribers. Details about the Embellished Tiara Challenge can be found at Nancy Eha’s web site: www.beadcreative.com

zéphirine drouhin details

Here is the photo I worked from in Zéphirine Drouhin. Once upon a time it looked more like the photograph (several years old, taken from my scrapbook). I didn’t want to spill ink on it so I put the page away halfway through. That is when the fairy took on a look of her own, although when my DD tilts her head she looks alot like the fairy, and as she looks a bit younger than the fairy, they should look even more alike in a few years. I really liked the fairy as she was so I kept her even though it was not an exact likeness. The inks behave somewhat like watercolors in that you cannot overwork them or it will become muddy. I had to abandon my first attempt, taken from a different photo, because it was becoming mud pie.

You can also see some of the embellishments (beads, glitter, embroidery threads, and crystals). Angelina fibers are in the wings and metallic threads in her hair.

Finally we have the close-up of one of the rosebuds, the border quilting, the binding treatment, and the view from the back. Yes, those are very thick threads and very large quilting stitches.

You can see larger detail images, the painting which inspired this quilt, and other interpretations of that painting in the Spring 2006 ARTImage Challenge Webshots Album.

You can read about my original inspiration for this quilt on the Delphi Quilt Studio Forum, Spring ARTImage Picture and Discussion, message #57.