Bead Arts Awards Winners and Honorable Mentions

The 2023 Bead Arts Awards winners and honorable mentions were announced last week at Bead Fest in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and we were so happy to welcome several of them to celebrate with us in person at the event. Entries ranged from life-size bead art sculptures and decorative works to wearable art.

Judges looked for beadwork that tells a story, puts a twist on a traditional technique, and showcases meticulous craftsmanship. This year, there were three categories: bead sculpture, bead embroidery, and bead looming.

Grand Prize Winner

The Grand Prize Winner, Sunday Olaniyi, won for his spectacular beaded eagle sculpture titled Here I Come. Sunday and his family attended the award presentation, where he dedicated his award to the people of his home country of Nigeria.

Follow Sunday on Facebook for updates about his new gallery and other projects. Sunday lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Category Winners

The category winner for Bead Embroidery, Virginia Burnett says her Garden Companion, is an exploration of color and whimsy. Virginia shares, “My best work comes when I’m having a bit of fun, and this quirky statement collar is a prime example. The colors here are bold and joyful and the tiny iguana is obviously pleased to find himself in the middle of a flowery feast.”

Virginia has an Etsy shop, GoblinsMarket, and you can also view more of her amazing work on Instagram. She lives in upstate New York.

When Bead Sculpture category winner Patti Parker found a wooden window in a craft store, she was inspired to fill the empty panes with beautiful scenery. Patti used a variety of bead embroidery techniques to depict orange and lemon trees along with a flower garden, sunny sky, and more. Visit RoseBluBeads.com to see more of Patti’s beadwork inspired by nature. She lives in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.

Bead Looming category winner Mary Yaeger created Bead Polyphony as a tribute to the artist and musican Paul Klee. She says, “Klee was both an artist and musician, and in his painting Polyphony he explored blocks of shaded color and how they might convey a musical-like texture. I wanted to see whether I could translate Polyphony into beadweaving. Beads add light, transparency, and other surface effects not visible in paintings on canvas.”

See more of Mary’s beadwork at MaryYaegerDesign.com. She lives in Los Angeles and is a member of the San Diego Bead Society.

Honorable Mentions

Anita Kozinko received an honorable mention for her beaded fiddle and bow titled An Angel Went Down to Georgia, in a twist on the popular song. Anita says, “Collections are reflections of the soul and I have been a collector all my life—from primitive antiques to vintage jewelry. These are the components along with needle and thread that make my pieces unique.” Anita was a Bead Arts Awards category winner in 2022.

Find more of Anita’s work on her site, on Instagram @norenjewelrydesign, and stay up to date with her on Facebook, as Noren Jewelry Design. 

For this year’s Bead Arts Awards competition, Connie Kuilema was inspired to illustrate a quote from her favorite author, Sir Terry Pratchett: “No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away.” Connie admits that she intends to create a lot of ripples in her life. She enjoyed the process of creating this hand-beaded work of art inspired by her favorite author.

Learn more about Connie’s process and work at ThePuglingHoard.com. Connie lives in Three Rivers, Michigan.

Betty Cox created Beads of Rock in honor of her daughter’s love of music, bands, and fashion. Betty used a variety of beadwork techniques to create a riot of colors and textures on a guitar-shaped leather base. The finished work is framed in a shadow box that’s approximately 36” high. Betty also received an honorable mention last year.

You can find Betty’s unique bead art for sale on Etsy in her UniqueandMacabre shop. See more of her work on Instagram, @iltbe1956.

Laura Elmore’s work, Ebey’s Landing, is a response to troubling times, falling back to meditations on nature and the therapeutic effect of physically connecting mind and body while doing beadwork. She says, “This piece was also influenced by the perfect circles of Native American beadwork, an homage, blending my painterly sensibilities with, admittedly, less than perfect circles, echoing kindred expressions of connection.” Follow Laura’s beading journey on Facebook at @catcentricstudio.

Congrats to all of our 2023 Bead Arts Awards winners! Your creations were truly inspiring.

We would love to see your bead art entries in next year’s competition! Visit our Bead Arts Awards page for all the latest information. The competition is open to all levels!

Related: 2022 Bead Arts Awards Winners and Honorable Mentions

Give the winners some love in the comments!