The parade has passed down St Charles Avenue, but the magic of Mardi Gras remains. The giant floats of New Orleans icons have paused; the exhausted krewes are seeing doubloons everywhere they look, even on the wheels of their floats!
Beads and ‘throws’ litter the ground (and trees), but there are more parties to come because the baby is still inside the king cake (have a peek).
Working across two continents, beaders of all abilities brought together stringing, bead embroidery, CRAW, RAW, peyote, netting, French beading and freeform, learning new techniques along the way, to create this magical display.
Parading Together is a collaborative project, created by members of Pinkhot Beaders bead group, it was submitted as an entry for the Beadworkers Guild 2025 Challenge.
The theme of the competition was Mardi Gras – and together, the group created a parade of floats, featuring iconic emblems from this historic festival – all woven out of tiny beads!
We’ve created a short film! In it, we share with you a little more about our entry. We’ll cover how we went about creating it and just why it felt so special to us!
Pinkhot Beaders is a free bead group set up by me, Chloe, in 2020, and we meet fortnightly on Zoom. We are based all over the globe, with members from around the UK and USA.
There are around 16 of us who join regularly, although we have other friends who pop in and out occasionally. Once a year, some of us get together in person for a fun weekend retreat too! 14 members of the group took part in the Challenge entry. We named the finished piece ‘Parading Together’ to acknowledge how much we enjoyed coming together to create this piece of art.
What the judges said:
“We absolutely loved the creativity and sense of fun in this design. The king cake with the baby inside was a brilliant touch, and the crocodile – with his fun teeth – added character and charm.
“The use of stitches was very effective, creating texture and shape that brought the scene to life. The beautifully embroidered sign at the centre of the display added polish.
“It was clear a lot of thought went into making the whole piece feel cohesive and well balanced.”
Watch our film
“Honoured to be a part of this group and make. Everyone did an amazing job and the community group spirit, kindness, understanding and inclusion was a wonder to behold.
“Everyone who wanted to be a part was. No matter their skill level or available time to give.
“It embodied what I’ve come to see as the beading community.” – Cheryl
My heartfelt thanks for joining me in this adventure go to:
Caroline Keen
Cheryl Jackson
Janet Brown
Jan Swain
Jenny Argyle
Katie Dean
Kay Brown
Lesley Belton
Linda Beth Neustifter
Maureen Lord
Margaret Haigh
Sarah Cryer
Shelley Bettencourt
You can find out more about my Zoom bead group, the Pinkhot Beaders, here. You might also like to join my Facebook group, the Pinkhot Bead Room – it’s an inclusive space where you can be yourself, connect with others, learn new things and get expert advice!
I also recommend checking out the Beadworkers Guild website, where you can find free patterns, plenty of beading inspiration and much more.
We hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about our group challenge entry to the Guild challenge. Maybe it’s inspired you to either join a bead group, if you aren’t a member of one already, or perhaps even enter a beading competition with your friends.
Happy beading!