Well, for those of you who have been following me for a while, it’s that time of year again! I spent the allotted time from 1st April until 8th June putting my efforts into making a stunning piece of wearable beadwork, photographing it to show it to best advantage and then sending four photos to Steven Weiss of the Beadsmith. This past week has seen the gradual revelation of the work of the 256 bead artists from around the world…or at least the work of those who were drawn in battle in groups D and C. B and A are still to be revealed as I write this, so if you are following the battle, then keep watching. If you’re not already following, then join up quick as voting for round 1 has already started for the group D pieces, so don’t miss out!
For those of you who are new to the battle, a quick summary of the idea. The participants are invited to take part and given two months to create their best work, then submit photos. Before battle commences, everyone has been divided into groups (four this year) and within each group the participants are randomly drawn against one another to form 32 ‘battles’. A battle is won or lost on the strength of the work photographed: there is a public vote, a participant vote and a judges vote to determine which piece in each battle will proceed to the next round. The winning pieces are then randomly drawn into further battle pairings and so on until there is a winner in each group. These four masters will then be pitted against one another to find the ultimate winner. In each round, one new photo of the work can be added, so the further you progress in battle, the more of your work you can show.
Now, I say, ‘I spent the allotted time working on my piece’, but in actual fact, the reality was a little different. I found I had deadlines for three major beading projects all on the same weekend – 7th/8th June! One was the battle piece, the second was another competition piece which will be revealed in due course and third were beaded flowers for the bridesmaids at my brother’s wedding. All very important pieces. In addition, I moved house in the middle of May and I was attempting to keep on top of my usual teaching and writing commitments. So, for those of you who have missed a few newsletters or noticed my partial absence from Facebook and Pinterest, apologies and now you know the reason why! Incidentally, I somehow managed to complete all three projects and move without losing anything (at least not for more than a couple of days!). How I have survived this feat, I do not know, but I think I’ve won my battle regardless of what happens with the voting! Happily, I don’t have very high standards to maintain as I went out in round 1 last year, so I can’t possibly do any worse this year! In fact, I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’m not feeling that competitive. This may be a battle, but that side of it is really just a bit of fun. Last year I became friends with my battle adversary (she sent me the loveliest message when she was voted through and the friendship grew from there) and this year my adversary and I have already made friends and admired one another’s work. It really seems a shame that any of the pieces get knocked out, but at least they all remain in Facebook albums for posterity. There has even been talk of a BOTB book, so who knows?!
I have written a little about the inspiration behind this year’s piece, ‘In Flanders Field’ on the battle entry, so I won’t repeat all of that here! Firstly, my recent book, Beaded Clasps, had a strong influence. As I was making the samples and creating the designs for this book, I became fascinated by the idea of linking components, or using clasps as a focal point in a design. These ideas gradually evolved into the one big idea: what if the entire piece of jewellery was a series of clasps, something that could be taken apart and put together in different forms? Since I’m always finding I never have the right jewellery for the outfit I want to wear (the neckline is never quite right etc), this seemed like the perfect answer. I can simply change this necklace around to suit my outfit!
Secondly, as the name suggests, I felt it would be appropriate to do something to commemorate a very significant anniversary – 100 years since the start of World War I. This had such a huge impact on the history and shape of Europe and the world beyond, but rather than learn any lessons, humanity has gone on to continue fighting. Coincidentally, two days before the BOTB deadline this year, also marked the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings on the Beaches of Normandy that proved to be the beginning of the end of World War II. As I write this blog, world leaders are debating whether and how to get involved in the fighting that is currently taking place in the Middle East. I very much hope this is not going to turn into World War 3, but it does seem that we humans find it so much easier to kill one another than find ways to live with mutual love and respect.
I have started to receive some comments on my piece (all very kind – so thank you, it means such a lot!) and these included some thoughts about the colour and the contrast between the bright poppies and the portrayal of death. For me, that contrast just sums up the whole combination of senseless violence and destruction with the positivity that it is happening to create a better future: the ability of the early First World War poets to focus on the beauty of nature, the poppies dancing amongst the graves of the soldiers. Every year on Remembrance Sunday, we hold onto those positive images of poppies as we think back on the lives lost. For me, this proved to be quite an emotional piece to create. My Dad passed away 8 years ago and both his birthday and the anniversary of his death fell in the beading period. For some reason, this hit me hard this year, so perhaps this entry has also had some sort of cathartic effect for me personally. For every life lost, there is a mixture of terrible sadness at the hole that life leaves for those who remain, but also a reflection on all the things that the person gave to their loved ones – the gladness and happy memories.
I have also had a few admirers of my poppies, so I actually wrote up the pattern for these and have created a bracelet that is a field of tiny poppies, fastened with one large poppy clasp. So, for anyone who fancies having a go at that, you can find it here.
