An Incredible Bead Mosaic

I am ever fascinated by what an be accomplished using beads. One of the many uses for beads is to great mosaics that depict pictures. Incredibly, these can be as detailed as a painting, or even a photograph! I dream of one day being able to produce a piece like that, even on a small scale, and now we apparently have a new record holder for the largest of them all.

This tribute to President Obama was created by 4th grade school children across all 50 states. It was presented to President Obama as a birthday present, and was displayed in front of the White House on August 3rd, 2008. It contains 372,000 beads.

This projected was driven by the company PhotoPearls, and the created both the pattern and the beads. The picture was completed using gluing techniques (versus the bead embroidery techniques more commonly seen), and the pieces assembled after being gathered from the various schools.

There has been some controversy surrounding this project, as there is around most things political, but that's life. My opinion? I don't think it matters what you think of Obama as a President, this is still an incredible work of art. Plus, as someone who cares passionately about our nation's children, I think it's wonderful that it was created by school children across the nation! And to those who are comparing it pictures that were created of Hitler and Stalin, can you really think of a major world leader that DOESN'T have art work created about them at some point? Let's be realistic here people.

For some more information (and where I got the photos) check out these links:

http://daxdesigns.blogspot.com/2009/08/beading-tales-and-trivia-us-president.html

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/08/obama-bead-guiness-record-mosaic-beads-sweden.html

http://www.photopearls.se/newsroom/

http://www.infektia.net/the-largest-bead-picture-in-the-world/

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2308365/posts