MOUNT VERNON — The communitywide Beaded Pouch Project culminated in the opening of a month-long show at Mount Vernon Nazarene University’s Fine Arts Center on Sunday.
Pouch-makers and admirers browsed more than 1,300 objects d’art on display, at a reception hosted by the project’s coordinator, MVNU’s gallery curator Lori Wilkes.
The rules for making pouches are simple: They must be from 1-by-1-inch square to 4-by-5-inches square; at least one bead must be incorporated; and any material or decoration can be used.
The final rule is that each pouch must contain a wish, hope, dream, prayer or a sentiment.
Pouch-makers let their imagination run wild. Schools, churches, businesses and clubs got involved. Children, the elderly, college students, artists and non-artists got together to create pouches.
The diversity of creative thought is best seen in the materials used. There are pouches made of burlap, leather, felt, metal, fabric, paper, crocheted doilies, yarn and hundreds of beads, decorated with drawings, stamping, feathers, handwriting and stickers.
Those made by very young children are simply two circles of felt laced with ribbon, or a piece of paper folded over.
At the other end of the spectrum are a pouch made from a crushed Pepsi can, one made of woven paper, a knitted pink pouch in the shape of a woman’s tank top, several shaped like tiny purses, one that resembles a Christmas stocking and another made from a cereal box.
One pouch, in the shape of an “X,” has green paper backing behind a photo of plastic sewer pipe. Another is a piece of white milk container plastic, folded and stapled. A yellow note can be seen inside. Another is the toe of an old sock; one is a cookie wrapper laced with fishing line. Nearby is a pouch made from camera film negatives.
A woman was heard to marvel, “People are so creative.”
Debbie and Phil Sohn of Mount Vernon brought their children to see the pouches they made.
Joey Sohn, 9, was enthusiastic about his, made to look like a shark. Its glittering teeth are beads.
Asked what hope he had tucked inside, he said, “It’s not a hope. It’s three words: ‘Hi to all.’ I couldn’t think of anything else.”
Megan Sohn, 10, put her name in lettered beads on her green pouch. The note inside includes the words “I love my Mom.”
Aiden Sohn, 6, was upset that he didn’t get to create a pouch, but it’s not too late. The show is open for submissions through March and new entries will be displayed as they are submitted.
Wilkes showed a visitor the decorated amber mirror suspended from the ceiling, and slowly turning.
“When you look into it,” she explained, “you are a pouch. And there’s a wish inside ... to love yourself.”
She said the idea for the project came from a similar project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2000, which eventually gathered 5,000 pouches that have been displayed around the world.
Wilkes said, “Everybody’s got their own idea for their pouch. That’s the great thing. People are often out of practice, creatively. This is a small thing, and easy.
“In our culture, we are getting more and more isolated. If we could come together more often, creatively, think of how much more we could get done.”
Several businesses hosted workdays for the public to make pouches, as did Kenyon College and MVNU, and Wilkes donated most of the beads from her personal collection.
Of the 1,300 pouches submitted so far and the enthusiasm for making them, Wilkes said, “It’s a victory, really, when you do a community thing because you never know what you’re going to get. You never know because it’s not up to you. This [the show] is the crescendo. The feedback has been 100 percent positive. This reception is a party, and everyone’s happy.”
In April, the exhibit will be displayed at the Gallery 202 in Westerville, and Wilkes expects it to travel to other galleries and communities. The Fine Arts Center is inside the R.R. Hodges Chapel on the MVNU campus. Hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
