In home display

The Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild had its start 20 years ago, when a group of gals who frequented a “trimmings” store (buttons, lace, ribbon) started experimenting with beads. Today, the nonprofit organization has about 300 members and offers monthly meetings, as well as outreach programs, events and classes with national instructors.

Guild president Sharon Wagner of Sterling Heights told me that the majority of Guild members are off-loom bead weavers.

“Most of us weave things with needle and thread and bead. If you think of Native American and African tribes that use a lot of beads in their work, those are the basic stitches we use,” she said. “A lot of our members do bead embroidery, where instead of using fibers, you use beads to cover a whole surface.”

The display case at the Southfield Library is filled with beautiful examples of bead work by GLBG members, including some pieces from last fall's Synergy competition. The collaborative contest pairs a beadwork designer from GLBG with a beadmaker from the Southeastern Michigan Glass Beadmakers Guild.

“Last year the Synergy competition theme was ‘Yeah … Detroit, So Bead It,” Wagner said. “Any Detroit theme that you could make into some kind of beaded object was the objective. The idea of revitalizing Detroit, we wanted to weigh in on that with beads.”

“Driving Detroit” is a winning example. Designed by Carmen Falb, the neckpiece took first place in the Finished Jewelry category. It has thousands and thousands of stitches and likely weighs five or six pounds. The automotive symbols, Detroit River and buildings on the piece are made of glass. Kim Meray was the bead maker.

Wagner is giving a presentation at the Southfield Library at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, for those who would like to learn about the Guild and the art of beadworking.

“I explain who we are and all of the wonderful things we offer and why, if they are interested in beadwork, the Guild would be a good place for them to be,” she said.

Mixed media work represents the creative energies of four talented artists in the “Spirits” exhibition at the Woods Gallery through April 11. Gallery coordinator Lisa Grix is showing her eye-catching Grixdolls. The crucifixion-shaped figures are based loosely on African talisman dolls. They're made from a variety of materials, including found objects like sticks and pine needles, and handmade pieces.

“I never know what it's going to be until it just starts coming out through my fingertips, and that's kind of what we all agreed upon, that we just start working with different mediums and you kind of get what you get, so to speak,” she said.

Took Gallagher of Northville has several three-dimensional pieces in the show made with plaster cloth, a cotton fabric imbedded with plaster. There's a five-foot snake titled “The Keeper of Secrets” and a small poseable mannequin called “Woodland Bop” after a T. Rex song of the same name. And then there's the “Atomic Fireball Happy Hour” deer.

“You know those Atomic Fireballs, those hard candies? Its head is made from a canister that they came in and the base is made from a happy hour cookie tin. The antlers came from a vine that I've been trying to get rid of forever since I moved to Northville. I call it the devil's fingers, because we could never get rid of it. I finally dug it up,” said Gallagher, who painted the plaster cloth-covered figure a mix of colors, washes and transparent paint.

A painter and collage artist, Juana Moore of Ferndale developed an interest in toy-making. One of her 3D pieces, “The Queen of Cans and Jars,” is a wide-eyed woman who wears a “crown” and who is surrounded by jars and containers filled with pencils, toys and other found objects. The piece is made of dollmaker's clay over a foam base.