September 2020 Creativity Challenge
Stronger Together
Congratulations to Ivy Boyer!
Let's be Stronger Together in helping the Beads of Courage reach their 1,000-bead goal.
Create a minimum of 10 beads to donate to Beads of Courage.
Artist Statement
The theme of my submission is "food food", which is the theme that my local ISGB chapter, So Cal Flame Surfers, has selected for this year's Bead Challenge. I've made a selection of foods one might enjoy on a picnic: strawberries, watermelon, candy corn, and smores. Except for the corn, I had never made the other items before, so it was a good learning experience and challenge to develop the methods to make the other food items.
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Artist Statement
When I can, I like to help, so to me this challenge is a Win Win for all.
First to help others with their 1,000 bead challenge, second to make beads for the kids at BOC, and third to challenge myself to try a new bead designs. These little ghosties were fun trying out and I know will bring joy to the kids.
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Artist Statement
I'm affiliated with the Arizona Society of Glass Beadmakers (ASGB) and we're doing a different BoC challenge each week this month. The first challenge was to make "Marcy's Mutts" for puppy beads for the BoC kids. Here are the mutts I made for the challenge.
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Artist Statement
Thank goodness for the creativity challenge! Inspiration has been in short supply for me this year, and this was a welcome motivator to participate in the positive. Beads of Courage is such a great foundation. I’ve donated to before, and when a co-worker’s son was diagnosed with leukemia I got them hooked up with the program.
The theme for this year’s drive - “Stronger Together” - instantly brought to mind boxing gloves for me. They’re fun, colorful, and the shape fits the BOC format perfectly. In doing a little research there is (sadly) a color associated with each type of cancer, so the gloves can signify fighting back against that child’s particular cancer. This was such a rewarding project I intend to keep making and sending them on.
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Artist Statement
Making beads started as a hobby with my daughter when she was just 12 so when I first heard of the Beads of Courage program, I knew I had to get involved. Combining a love for kids and beads has been "me" for the past 20 years. I love paying it forward for these kids.
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Artist Statement
I am never bored with glass. Enjoyment for me is working with the vibrant colors and depth you get with glass. It has been a joy creating these whimsical sculptural beads for Beads of Courage. I hope these minions bring smiles to the kids.
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Artist Statement
This statement is ever-changing....just like life as we travel through our journeys.....I had quite a big loss in May....my husband passed and I lost my best friend, husband...soulmate....and my biggest advocate of my art....so all my art lately has been my therapy....and donations for Beads of Courage.
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Artist Statement
Just some little friends who will hopefully cheer some child's day.
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Artist Statement
This has been a really fun challenge to work on! I really appreciate being asked to come up with a tutorial and want to thank the ISGB for the opportunity. I have learned so much through my membership with the ISGB, so it is very rewarding to be able to give back! This month I watched all of the other artist tutorials and tried my hand at each design: Marcy’s mutts, Jelveh’s turtles, Kari’s wolves, my spiders & flies (or course), and Karen’s ghosts. Such fun designs and I hope they bring smiles to the kids in the Beads of Courage program (which is the most wonderful organization, by the way!)
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Artist Statement
I was inspired by my chapter's (So Cal Flame Surfers) BOC challenge theme, "Picnic in Place". I really enjoy making food themed beads.
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Artist Statement
I don’t need to tell you how much fun it is to play with fire! Playing with molten glass in bright colors and a Bead of Courage is born.
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Artist Statement
I approached this challenge by drawing on some tried and true BOC designs I've done in the past, including a number of "Hi There Cat" beads (like the popular one that shall not be named) in all sorts of colors. I understand that it's impossible for me to know what kind of bead might appeal to any given child on any given day, so I try to include a mix of styles. This submission also includes a couple of topical "Vote" beads, along with a few containing the inspirational message "I Got This", on colorful backgrounds.
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Artist Statement
I'm a former member of ISGB. I learned of the Beads of Courage program at the gathering in Minneapolis years ago and have made hundreds of beads for the program since then. Jean did a presentation there and when she finished her speech, there wasn't a dry eye in the room. I've made many beads with faces before, sun faces, smiley faces. etc. I have a stash of commercial murrini and decided to think of ways to use them, and the result was these large beads. We were asked at one point by Beads of Courage to make larger beads. Also, I always try to think of beads for the guys in the program and thought I'd try to make some eagles. Using three different pictures, these are my attempts at eagles. I hope they look like eagles to others. I fully support this wonderful organization.
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Artist Statement
I love creating BOC Beads because I believe in them. I strive to create something in each bead that holds interest and creates inspiration and inspecting, as there is usually more than meets the eye at first look. These beads were inspired by Jeri Warhaftig's face beads presentation. I don’t know what my current count is, but I’m proud to say it’s over 1,000 and growing.
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Artist Statement
It gives me great pleasure to create “beads of encouragement” for Beads of Courage!
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Artist Statement
This is a joyful hobby for me, I have no shop or website. I make gifts and spread joy with my beads, and occasionally sell items if asked. I have been making beads for 8 years and have great camaraderie with a tight knit group of ladies through the Spruill Arts Center.
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The Beads of Courage organization’s dedication to helping kids and teens is downright inspiring. I welcomed the opportunity to dive fully into lampworking and dedicate my spare time for a month to help the children. The many tutorials, ideas, and collaborative inspiration kept my creative juices flowing into the wee hours! Every morning I was elated to see that the kiln faeries visited my studio, allowing me to create more than 400 beads for the children.
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I’m donating ten “flat bunny” beads. We had a house bunny for a few years and discovered that whenever he was afraid, he would go flat.
It seemed appropriate for kids dealing with bad stuff. Also, this design is truly my own inspired by Boris, our house bunny. I don’t know of anyone else who makes bunnies in quite the same way!
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Artist Statement
I have been making lampwork beads for about 15 years and am always looking for new inspiration. When sending beads to Beads of Courage, I always try to come up with beads that will get smiles from the kids and that might be unique so they have a one of a kind bead. I am sending 21 beads this time, some simple and some sculptures.
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Artist Statement
Here is my entry for the Stronger Together Beads of Courage Challenge, “Cactus Garden”. When I make beads for Beads of Courage, I like to think of subjects that will appeal to older children, both boys and girls.
Recently, I was looking at photos from a vacation in the desert a few years back. It dawned on me that the saguaro cactus is just a cylinder with arms. The arms require minimal sculpting to give them definition. Some have murrini blossoms, others just a flattened dot that has been poked deeply. These were so much fun to make. Of course, I can’t make two exactly alike!
When it came time to photograph the beads, I thought it would be fun to stand them up as if they were growing in the desert.
I am a member of the SoCal Flamesurfers and have recently also joined the Arizona Society of Glass Bead Makers.
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Artist Statement
I often donate beads to Beads of Courage. The donated beads are from tutorials specifically for BOC, test beads, orphan beads, and end of day beads. These 10 beads are examples. The tutorials are from the Arizona Society of Glass Bead Makers, Soda Lime Times, and ISGB.
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Artist Statement
When the “Stronger Together” challenge came up, the first picture I had in my head was of our planet surrounded by the love and caring of humanity. OK, so now how to apply that to a bead?
In my beads Earth is represented by the blue heart with green continents. The band of red, yellow, black, white, and brown represents humanity coming together and surrounding the Earth with a big hug. Instead of separating ourselves by race, religion, and country, we are much Stronger Together with each other and our planet. After all, even when we think we have absolutely nothing in common, we share a very great thing in common; our home, Mother Earth.
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