Louise Carter and International Patchwork Sculpture

Hello, dear readers!

Today, I am going to talk about a beading international project that I have joined during International Beading Week (HERE) back in July and to which I want to invite you to join in.

Louise Carter

Beading buddy

The projet is International Patchwork Sculpture (HERE) and it is the creation of Australian beader Louise Carter (HERE), who has a passion for geometric beadwork. 

Exceptional geometric beadwork by Louise Carter

Louise has kindly accepted to participate in the following interview, which was inspired by a Spanish beading blog (HERE):

Please tell us your name. Louise Carter

How old are you? I am 32 this month (21st October)

In what country were you born? Australia 

Do you still live in that country? Yes, and in the same town Mackay

When did you start beading? I started beading when I was a teenager, when I was about 16 or 18, but I didn’t really get into beading until 2014.

How did you start? My mum took me to a workshop and I made a bracelet from seed beads and brought several beautiful lampwork glass beads.

I half hardly gave beadwork ago, like many other crafts, but one day I came across a beaded 3D ball on the internet and gave it a go and was hooked.

Beaded gold dresses by Louise Carter

Please name three beading artists who inspire you. 

Ashley Mae, also known as PinkythePink, was one of the first beaders I was inspired by. I found her on an art site called Deviant Art and she makes miniature dresses that are so amazing. 

Sharl G. Smith was also someone I was inspired by early. I came across her sculpture White 11, 2017 – it looked amazing and I love her style. 

Suzanne Golden is also another beader I am inspired by – she makes bright coloured beadwork with large Perler beads.

Amazing geometric beadwork by Louise Carter 

How many hours per week do you dedicate to beading? Is this more than a hobby? 90ish% of the time – I spend most of the day beading. I wake up, make a coffee and get to work, then I will bead all day with a few short breaks. 

On the weekdays, I have a casual job that I go to for unto 4 hours in the evening and then I come back, eat dinner and keep beading. 

I used to work out at the mining camps, but I really wanted to have more time to bead and have been working on making it more full-time. 

And sometimes I spend time with my family and go on mini adventures around the Mackay region.

Delightful geometric beadwork by Louise Carter

Do you have any other hobbies? I read a lot, and love audiobooks as I can read while I am beading. When I was a teenager I would spend a few months on a hobby and then a few months reading and then a few months doing something else. I do try out other hobbies every now and then but mostly I just focus on beading these days.

International Patchwork Sculpture project by Louise Carter

Please tell us about this international project. So the International Patchwork project is about giving people  new skills and knowledge, but mostly confidence. Working with The Beadworkers Guild I chose pentagons as the 2D shape as it is one that hasn’t been done before in international projects and because it gave everyone more room to create their own patterns on the shape. When all the pentagons will be sent in I will join them together and video the process for everyone to see how it is done.

How did you come up with the idea? I get a lot of beaders who comment on how lovely my 3D shapes are but that they wouldn’t be able to make something like that, and I thought as they are made in parts, it was something that they could learn to do. And when we were making warped squares for Sam Norgard’s project I noticed a few people were having trouble getting the colours needed for the project, so I wanted a theme that gave people the opportunity to use what they already had in their stash if they wanted to. I also chose Patchwork as the theme because I loved the idea of communities coming together to create large patchwork quilts.

From where are the participants? The project has participants from all over the world, there are several in Australia, some in Portugal, the UK, USA, Belgium, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland to name a few places.

Where will the sculpture be shown? The finished project will be shown in my hometown at one of my local libraries next year in June and then it will be sent to the Museum of Beadwork in America – they are excited to house the project.

Will you be keeping it? No, as much as I’d love to.

Some of the pentagons made by Louise Carter for International Patchwork Sculpture project

Do you have any projects/goals for the future? Yes, I will be making a sugar cube-inspired project in CRAW, inspired by my hometown’s sugar cane industry. And when I get the beads I’ll continue to work on my current collections. I also want to make a crystal cave-inspired shape and have a lot of other ideas, just waiting to be made. 

My goals for the future are to break some beading world records. It will be tough as the records are already tough to beat, but I am thinking about how to make a future international project for a world record work. And I also want to make a work to highlight the bleaching of the coral reef, but it will be complicated so I will need to think about it for a while longer.

Links:

International Patchwork Sculpture group on Facebook (join us!)

International Projects for International Beading Week 2022

Delicate By Lou – Louise's blog

Delicate by Lou (Instagram)

All photos are Louise Carter's and are protected by copyright.