Mackay artist Louise Carter exhibits geometric 3D bead works soon to go global
A Queensland artist using ancient bead weaving techniques for futuristic 3D works is sharing her innovations with the world. Find out how her first exhibition opening is just the start of her international designs.
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A Queensland artist has put a her own spin on one of the world’s most ancient crafts and says she’s just getting started.
Louise Carter is a Mackay-based beadworker who celebrated the opening of her first exhibition, Seed Beads, on October 21.
As a 2022 ambassador for The Beadworkers Guild in the UK, Ms Carter’s self-supporting 3D sculptures are being shared with the beading world for her next big project.
“My international project I’m running at the minute (has) people sending in (beaded) pentagons and I’ll make it into a sculpture,” she said.
“I did up a few patterns (and) we’ve got over 100 members in our Facebook group (plus others) doing it.
“(Once finished) it’s being displayed in (Mackay’s) Gordon White Library in June.
“Then after that it’s being sent to the Museum of Beadwork (in Maine, USA).
“They are very excited.”
Ms Carter said “even a lot of other beaders” couldn’t understand how she created her woven 3D works, made from 1mm glass beads and special nylon, and she was the only beadworker playing with futuristic designs in the state.
“Some people thought I was gluing them together,” she said.
“There are two other beaders I know in Queensland, but they don’t do this sort of style.
“I’m the only one who does this kind of beadwork in Mackay that I know of.
“Most of my followers are overseas (so) that’s what this exhibition was about, getting locals aware.”
Mackay MP Julieanne Gilbert and mayor Greg Williamson were among the Mackay residents present at the opening.
With many of the works on show created in her Beaconsfield home studio, she said her exhibition at the Jubilee Community Hall was about connecting her craft and her hometown.
Ms Carter said a few asked to buy the delicate hanging jellyfish sculptures she says were inspired by Queensland’s marine wildlife.
“Everyone keeps telling me that’s the one they really love, because we get the jellyfish on the beaches here,” she said.
“Pretty much every single culture has had some form of beadwork.
“It’s one of the oldest crafts.”
Though the collection of works took five years to complete, Ms Carter has set herself another new challenge.
“I want to set the record (and am) hoping it’ll be 1.5 to 2 metres tall,” she said.
“(So) hopefully the glass can actually sustain that weight.
“Hopefully if that goes well, I’ll set a few more.”
Seed Beads is on at Jubilee Community Hall until November 1, 2022.
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