Bead Embroidery - How to destroy your Eyesight in Two Weeks

Take on a bead embroidery project!  As some of you know, for the past couple years, I have refocused my time primarily on polymer clay bead making and jewelry work.  So, here's the backstory as to how I became crazed to the point of spending countless hours consecutively stitching hundreds of seed beads to create this final bead embroidered piece.

I was full steam ahead in poly clay making in June.  Then, a family visit hit in July and the guests were here for a month.  Thoroughly enjoyable.  No bead work done.  I know that sounds counter intuitive but I really was ok with the time off and the month long visit.

After my guest leave, I decide I am going to finish the studio cleanup I started before they got here.  If you get what I'm saying, that would mean going thru the stuff I just crammed in drawers when I ran out of clean up time before they arrived.  So, I pull out this piece of lacy's stiff stuff with 3 beads glued on it and a tiny bit of bead embroidery completed.  It was a piece I had grand ideas for over a year ago, but just couldn't get it together.

Oh, I almost forgot.  What stimulated my renewed effort to complete the studio cleanup was a surprise haul I picked up off the streets of Key West (pic at bottom).  I could really digress here but let me just say the things people throw out here would blow your mind.  People have furnished whole houses with the stuff!!!

Anyway, it was sorting and organizing all those beads that started giving me ideas of how to complete the piece.  I realized half of the problem was not really knowing what I have anymore or where exactly it is.  And so began the process of finishing this piece.  15 days later at an average of 8 hours a day, here is what I came up with including the final project and progress steps.

The "bead" that looks like a mirror on the right front is actually a piece of cut dichroic glass I found from a previous class I attended years ago.  I actually glued a piece of fiber around it because I was afraid it would cut my thread.  Below are the progress pictures.

This was after a few days.  Some of the most intensive work is peyote stitching around the glued cabs.  

More progress.  added a few more cabs because my eyesight was still fairly good.

This is about day 12.  Nearly done and before I will cut the lacy's flush against the beadwork.  I look at it to see how I want to embellish (that was adding the glass leaves, pearls on sequins, etc).  Basically, I am looking to see what might need some more flare or covering.  Sometimes there are tiny white gaps which make a perfect place to embellish.  The other thing I like to do before gluing on the ultrasuede backing is to look at the curves along the edge.  If they are too steep, I know I may run into buckling problems when I  brick stitch the edges so I add beads to smooth them out some.  The last step after gluing the backing on is to stitch it to the lacy's stiff stuff.  I like to use brick stitch but there are other options.

This is the final product cause I can never let well enough alone!

This is my dumpster diving haul that jump started me organizing my beads again.  And yes, it is full now.

ABS June Challenge

I adore the retro colors of the June challenge which features an art nouveau style poster showing a young woman reading a magazine.  I love the tangle of flowers wildly floating inside the frame.  I imagine her unbound hair would dance just as wildly were it set free.

  I felt that same wildness in the tendrils of my brain when I was creating these mini poly clay portrait style pendants.  It had been a long time since I worked with resin and emphera and I confess I felt both joy and fear in my mad experiments.  And I also felt a strange sense of abandon and release and totally immersed in the act of "play."  Isn't it lovely when that happens?  

As to the process, I started with plain white clay that I lightly textured using fabric as my texture tool.  Then I finger painted various colors very lightly using Genesis Heat set Paints. When all that was completed and baked, I resined the flowers and mod podged the papers.  After everything was dry/cured, I attached the flowers and papers to the baked/painted clay using resin.  That stamp on the pendant on the right I snuck from my boyfriend's collection. I fessed up of course (after the deed was done).

Below is the June challenge picture.

Go here to see more info on the challenge and other entries.  

Dry Gulch Challenge June 16 - Pretty in pinks

I love a challenge.  This one, sponsored by Dry Gulch Beads, features a particularly pretty, soft palette.   It really inspired me to look through my bead and fiber stash and find a nice soup to mix together.  Here is what I created.

And here is the color palette.  I hit most of the colors though might be difficult to see in this shot.

For more info on the challenge (deadline is June 30 and involves prizes), go here.

You Know you Have an Addiction When...

You go to the local Ben Franklin store for the third straight day just because they are having a 75% Going Out of Business sale!!!!

Well, I actually made and drank a cup of coffee, fed the pups, and took pictures of my beads for an etsy shop posting BEFORE I went back to the Key West Ben Franklin store...for the third day straight. 

 And, I ain't going back again.  So, take a letter Maria.  Address it to my therapist.  Send a copy to my extended family. Got start a new life.  Only some of you will get what I mean by this last paragraph.  oldies but goodies! 

 Anyway, here is my haul.  Filled three of my baskets.  

  

Before and After - Relishing Redo's

I don't know about you but I relish remaking things.  Not in the moment as I am making them because that is rework.  No, maybe months, even years after.  I have a bag full of jewelry waiting to be remade.  However, I never touch it.  Well, I touch it but mostly put things back.  The jewelry I want to remake and the jewelry I do remake is often the stuff sitting on display in my studio or in my own personal collection.

I have all the pieces I made in the last several months hanging on busts or jewelry stands and every now and again, I scan them for remake potential.   Sometimes the remake is rather simple.  Sometimes it is very messy.  Sometimes it goes into the bag of stuff  to be remade and is never heard from again.

 The remake that is the subject of this post involved two items I am very fond of individually.  And, actually, they can still be worn separately.   The wirework piece which has primarily cultured pearls, jasper, and swarovski crystals started as a rather busy piece.  But, then I removed part of it and created two separate necklaces.  The poly clay snakeskin piece had a couple lives also as shown in the photos below.  Anyhow, I am starting with the final result first and then what follows are the various "before" versions of both pieces. 

The Final version...for now!!!

Below is what the original wirework piece looked like.  Was way too busy but it took me several months to realize that.

 I eventually removed the piece that was on the right hand side and used part of it to create the necklace below.

The remaining piece I put in my personal collection though I have hardly worn it.  See photo below.  This photo is not a very good one but I was too lazy to take a new one.

Here is how the poly clay snakeskin started its life.  Had a bunch of bead woven beads spilling down the neck.  I liked that but got tired of looking at it.

For Version 2 of the Snakeskin necklace, I replace the chain and pendant  for a softer look.  I liked that too but, for now, I like the pearl snakeskin combo.  Will see what happens in a few months.  ha ha.

And that's all for now.

ABS June Challenge - Retro I Go

Art Bead Scene Blog: June Monthly Challenge

Mini mixed media poly clay portraits

Roberta Marks is a no nonsense artist who creates mixed media artwork that  is "often constructed with curious objects and hints of collected memories."  Having seen her exhibit recently at Key West Customs House, I was inspired to create my own mini mixed media Portrait pendants.  I started with either black, white, or muddy clay backgrounds and cut out various size squares and rectangles to create small abstract like paintings.  Most I textured using fabric or ceramic tiles and things like manual drills, and circle cutters.  In the case of the black and white one with transfer image on side one and white flower on back, I used a marxit tool, which I really liked.  I am thinking of making a blackboard and "chalking" in a saying on it.  

I painted each canvas with Genesis Heat Set paints.  I dressed some of

the canvas' with image transfers or emphera which I mod podged  before applying resin to secure the papers and objects in place. 

Side One - Includes a variety of techniques.  The images with flowers were done by finger painting on Genesis Heat Set paints onto stamps and then stamping on the baked, painted clay.  The bottom pendant has a series of yoga poses I stamped on.

Side Two - same techniques.  For pendant with green cutouts in next to last row, I first painted underneath on baked clay and added a backing which I cut out.

Side One closeup of Top Half

Side one - Closeup of Bottom Half

Side Two - Top Row

Side Two - Middle Row

Side Two - Bottom row

Close up of Letter pendants.  I especially like the pendants on the bottom.  I can see the swirls from the texture pad I used in the one on bottom left and overall it has a really rustic look.  The one on bottom right has 'Floating papers 3D look,"  which I love.

This is one of my more minimalistic "paintings"  I used a combo of finger painting and stamping to get the effect.  I like the idea of painting all around the edges  with messy strokes to give it more the look of a shabby well worn look.

I read somewhere online about using an incense stick to burn edges and holes in paper.  Makes so much sense and was quite fun!  Will try it on fabric too sometime!