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Written by Dara Spiotto
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Monday, 17 September 2007 |
 The Other Bead Challenge
Yes, people, I'm in the throws of another bead challenge. Occasionally you've heard me mention my friend Irene who has a small bead store out here in California. She was following the last Beadin' Path challenge, Beyond Make Believe: The Beaded Doll, and decided she wanted to give something like that a go in her store. And a bead challenge was born. It began on July 1st, and the theme is "The Beaded Garden."
That theme should just about appeal to any beader, I think. And as long as it contains some sort of garden subject matter, it can be anything! Earrings, a beaded vase, a bead embroidered pillow, a bracelet, a doll — anything, really. I love that because it opens it up to any level of beader, and gives a broad variety of subject matter to work in. Something for everyone. I've decided to enter two pieces.
 The first is a piece of beadwork that in the end I'll give to Irene as her birthday gift in November. It's going to be a beaded bag, and instead of planning every microscopic detail like usual, I've decided to wing it and let it take me where it wants. This is a new experience for me, since I'm such a diehard planner. I decided to make a solid color back ground in a matte gray AB seed bead. It looked like a rainy day garden to me, and I love that idea. Next, I made a row of fringe. Mind you, I made them all individually first, then attached them on. I like to do that for a couple of reasons. First, it lets me have elbow room as I do them. Secondly, if a fringe happens to break (knock on wood, sign of the cross, spit on the ground, and so forth…) then they all won't come unraveling. I chose to make a single strand with a few drops in it, and then a striped flower, and then a flower drop, ending with a lovely pastel green lucite leaf. I alternated purple and green, which are some of Irene's favorite colors. Then I attached them all to the bag.
How To Make Un-Attached Fringe
Here's how to make an un-attached fringe: Pick up all the beads you want for your fringe, including the drops for the bottom, whatever your design may be. Then work your way back up the strand. When you exit out of the top bead, add three more seed beads. Skip the end seed bead and pass your needle back down through the two. Your thread ends will be exiting out in the same place. Tie them together and put a dab of glue or clear polish on there. Then run the threads down the strand to hide them inside.
 At this point I decided to make a little triangle of netting on the bottom of the bag in front of the existing fringe. It's really fun to mix and match beading stitches in a single project. From this netting I added a row of leafy fringe and this time I decided to add it right to the netting instead of doing each fringe separately. Mostly because the leaves tend to cinch up the fringe a little tighter and I wanted to eyeball the length as I went. The triangle of netting made each fringe a different length, so it worked out that it was easier for me to see this way. The leaves will add some bulk, and a fresh color pallet of greens. One of the greatest things about fringe is how tactile it is. Totally irresistible. Leaf fringe is really full of great texture. I put a few tiny glass drops in the strand and then added another flower for the bottom drop. At this point I have no idea what I'll do with that netting. I could add beads into the holes, or add some flower clusters on the edges. Leaving it plain would be fine, too. I guess I'll make that decision later. When I got to the last fringe and only had about two more leaves to put on, I realized that the thread was just absolutely too short to pull it off. I had to cut a new length of Fireline and add it on just to make two small leaves. This took me a while longer than if I had just cut my previous thread 6" longer. But as I was working diligently away at it I realized that I wasn't annoyed by it at all. This is truly a labor of love, these seed beads. In fact, I could just sort out a spilled tray of seeds back into their original little compartments and I would be happy as a clam. (No, Heather… I will not sort out your messy 4 mm Swarovski bicone tray. This only applies to seed beads. :-) 
I decided the strap for this bag is going to say something. I'm not sure what yet, but it will be simple and of course having to do with a garden. I'll have to look for a simple quote that isn't too long. I don't necessarily want this to be a necklace amulet bag. It will be too heavy to wear in the end anyway, so strap length doesn't really matter.
Birdhouses? Birds? A Fairy Garden?
The body of the bag poses more of a problem. I have thought of a few ideas for it, such as birdhouses and birds, butterflies, a fairy garden… nothing is really grabbing me. Once Irene told me that she loved this one design because it had a garden with a little fence around it, and the vines of the garden were wound around the posts. It was like an overgrown cottage garden. So I may play around with some of those ideas.
The second piece I'm entering is a felted wall hanging. The felting is done, now it just needs some embellishment. I haven't worked much on it, other than the center of the flower has some beads. I'm having too much fun with the beaded bag to work on this yet, but I'll keep you posted on it.
So that's where it stands right now. If you're interested in getting involved in this one you can e-mail me. The deadline is October 1st and it's at a store in California, so you'd have to allow travel time for your piece to get here. It doesn't have to be complicated. Just flowery. Or… you can join the newest Beadin' Path challenge, which has a registration deadline of October 12th. Ok, I'm off to my beading. I hear it calling out to me. "Pay attention to meeeeeee!!" Beads are so demanding. |
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