One of my ongoing failures challenges is to figure out how to make my work “saleable”. Bead embroidery is fun, but it's not by any stretch a way to churn work out. I wondered if I could make something “quickly”, and that question is what this project was to address:
Last of my pieces to be made, first to be framed. Glass, thread, fabric, including one—count it—one vintage glass bead, one minihollow, plus one artisan disk (both orange). Embroidery measures 2" across.
By the time I'd gotten to this project, my hands hurt with the effort of pulling the beads through the heavy fabric. Nevertheless I wasn't sure I'd like this project at all, with its simpler palette of cheap glass beads only—n.b. that there's no swarovski, let alone semi-precious beads. I also used a lot of bigger seed beads—8/0s and even 6/0s.
But actually, it came out well, and the transparents still read on the dark fabric. This was a plus, as my next project, a decoration for a hexagonal box, was far more ambitious: representational iconography (daylilies) on the same dark green fabric; so this was a sample for that as well. Unfortunately, I've never gotten any further than thread tracing the design, which, being quite large, would need to be mounted on a Japanese frame, and stretched.[1]
Instead, I flutterbyed my way onto something different, with a hiatus that would last some years before attempting beaded embroidery again.
[1]Speaking of which, I hit upon a way of displaying these projects, by framing them; this one was the first I framed, with something I picked up at a resale shop for 25 cents. I love the richness even pseudo-gold frames give my studio, which is where these pieces hang out.
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
