Beading For a Cure

Finished! My entry for this year's Beading For a Cure challenge and auction is this piece of bead embroidery, "I Wanna Be A Cowgirl".

This was such a fun piece to make! I used up my entire stash of mother of pearl cabochons, and I was thrilled with how they complemented the colors chosen by Beki Haley of Whimbeads without overwhelming them. They just sort of nestle right in there, don't you think?

The strap, of course, was always a challenge. Why am I so good at designing focal pieces, but no so good at designing straps? Does this mean I should make more bracelets?

This piece was almost a bracelet, actually. I turned it on its side and wrapped it around my wrist before I added the stiffener between the bead embroidery and the Ultrasuede. But in the end, I decided that in order to use all of the beads that I still had to, it would work best as a pendant.

This was the piece that I enjoyed stitching so much with my Craft Optics. I swear, those things are amazing. I could see every single detail, right down to exactly where I needed to position my needle to make nice, straight, beaded lines with backstitch.

And the edging on this one was not so much inspired as it was just me being lazy again. I had to figure out how to use those peanut beads! I use the drops the easy way, and used them to fringe some beaded beads that I attached to the leather strap. But those peanut beads...

Just on a whim (Whim Beads, get it?), I picked up a seed bead, a few peanut beads, and a seed bead. Skipped a few beads in the brick stitch edging, and made a tiny little loop with the peanut beads all pushed together.

It resulted in a lovely, lacy edging all around the embroidery that both softened it and gave it a lovely accent color!

It was hard for me to pack this one up and ship it off. The thought of parting with it was so bittersweet that I actually wrote to Beki over at Beading For a Cure and asked if it was okay for me to bid on my own piece during the auctions in the spring. Because I really want this one back!

Such a pleasure being part of the Beading For a Cure challenge again this year. One of the questions they ask on the paperwork is why you wanted to be a part of this challenge and charity auction.

I didn't know Layne, the woman for whom all of this is done to honor. But she must have been a pretty special person to have inspired this in those she left behind when she lost her battle with colorectal cancer. And even though I didn't know her, I feel proud to be contributing towards the efforts to raise money for this type of cancer research in such a wonderful, warm, loving community of bead artists.

And THAT'S why I love participating in Beading For a Cure!