My Beadwork Blog and Gallery

Beading is a bit of an obsession. My beadwork blog is home to my thoughts on pieces I am working on, techniques I am learning, and my beading inspirations. I live in Bournemouth, Dorset and am mum to two gorgeous young children. I volunteer at both school and toddler group, and work part-time in online ad production. I try to fit in as much beading here and there as I can, for both relaxation, and to stretch and expand my creative side. I've learnt a variety of textile crafts over the years, but have always loved jewellery-making. I enjoy wirework, but beadweaving and bead embroidery have proved to be my favourite mediums, and it is these types of beadwork that I always seem to come back to. I love the colour and feel of beads, planning new projects, learning new techniques and of course, bead shopping! I read a wide variety of beading magazines and books, and apart from the occasional workshop, am primarily self-taught.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Bead Embroidered Collar design is evolving

I had some time to bead at the weeekend so my collar is coming along very nicely. It took several attempts to measure up and customise the template that Sherry Serafini works to in 'The Art of Bead Embroidery' and ensure that it fitted me and the sheets of Lacy's Stiff Stuff and ultrasuede backing. Now I have this template I can use it to speed up future projects. The Lacy's is great for glueing cabochons - ultrasuede is good but this just has the edge in drying speed. So far I've bezelled my cabochons with peyote stitch, using delicas and size 15 seed beads as you can see here. As mentioned, I glued them in place with multi- purpose glue (Wilkinson's own, perfect glue but the fumes are quite strong) so they don't need the peyote for security - I just love the intricate look of this style of bezel and will probably use it in most of my designs somewhere.



Now the cabachons are in place, the colour scheme is changing somewhat from how I envisaged -  the peach beads that I was planning to use now don't look quite right. The design is evolving to be very green, gold and black based, and much darker than originally planned, so that's the way I'm going with it. This photo was taken when I'd completed the first row of backstitch round the cabachons on the right hand side, using size 11 seed beads and hex-cuts. Now that part is finished,  I've been laying out beads and smaller cabs and taking photos to see which feel right, and am now have the collar in my kitchen to look at so I can think about it and have a play whenever I go past.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you, they are vintage ones from Rosebudlia. They're a very easy shape to work with.

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