Between making beaded stitch counters as favours for my EGA chapter's June meeting and my daughter becoming very interested in beaded jewellery making, it seems inevitable that I wanted to try using more beads in my embroidery. How can you walk down the aisles of beads and not want to try some! My SIL had a collection of beads that she wanted something made from so I offered to make a picture for her so I could try my hand at this. The main bead is a tiny turtle (not yet in the pond) and in a sense this is a memorial picture for her long lived turtle that is now gone.
Anyway, it is much harder to get things looking good than I expected. Not that I expected it to be easy, because I can see how much work goes into the pieces on people's blogs. But I just don't seem to be able to get the beads I have to fit in with the design I've started. Maybe I just need a different selection of bead colours and sizes than I have right now, at least for this type of piece.
I embroidered the background plants last night and added the brown beads for cattails and the tiny purple and gold beads on the other plants. So far so good I thought, but then I tried to sort of fill in with various beads and discovered they all just looked to big and bulky for this picture. I had rock like beads for the pond's edge and again, too bulky. The small flower shaped beads seem fine, and I do like the glass butterflies, but most of the other beads don't work. So I think for the pond I'll stick to some small bead highlights so I don't detract from the turtle.
This piece is only 4x6 because I found this neat picture frame that actually has 1/2" depth built in which would allow for the beads. I'm thinking I'll get another in a different colour and try a modern design in beads, maybe working in a different style will allow me to develop the bead dense look I would like to try. Or maybe, after I finish a piece I have due at the end of the summer, I'll look into taking Sharon B's sumptuous surfaces course - her beaded shell design is just the sort of thing I'd like to work on. There is no way I can manage it for the July 11 course, but I think it is in my future.
Anyway, it is much harder to get things looking good than I expected. Not that I expected it to be easy, because I can see how much work goes into the pieces on people's blogs. But I just don't seem to be able to get the beads I have to fit in with the design I've started. Maybe I just need a different selection of bead colours and sizes than I have right now, at least for this type of piece.
I embroidered the background plants last night and added the brown beads for cattails and the tiny purple and gold beads on the other plants. So far so good I thought, but then I tried to sort of fill in with various beads and discovered they all just looked to big and bulky for this picture. I had rock like beads for the pond's edge and again, too bulky. The small flower shaped beads seem fine, and I do like the glass butterflies, but most of the other beads don't work. So I think for the pond I'll stick to some small bead highlights so I don't detract from the turtle.
This piece is only 4x6 because I found this neat picture frame that actually has 1/2" depth built in which would allow for the beads. I'm thinking I'll get another in a different colour and try a modern design in beads, maybe working in a different style will allow me to develop the bead dense look I would like to try. Or maybe, after I finish a piece I have due at the end of the summer, I'll look into taking Sharon B's sumptuous surfaces course - her beaded shell design is just the sort of thing I'd like to work on. There is no way I can manage it for the July 11 course, but I think it is in my future.
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