"And the Bead Goes On and on..." 1-8 Feb

2014 - Week 6 Daily Beads

I mentioned last week that I was going to put the bead for 1 Feb up this week rather than post it on its own with the summing up of January.

I showed you the trialling and design development of these. Here is a photo with the seam gauge so you can get an idea of the size.


To be honest, this is a bit small! But I thought 1 inch squares of fabric would be good and had already cut them from this fabric...and I only had just a little more of the fabric anyway. So, I stuck with it.

However, here is the plan for fabric beads this year. (The rest I will cut as 1 1/2 inch squares as I do want them somewhat small.) The little fabric packets will be on alternate months like last year. So, I am going to work with complementary colours - various tints and shades of beads onto the fabric colour for the month. The fabric colour will probably be the same tint/shade through the month.

Later in the month I will show you how they are made...basically the 1 inch square piece of fabric folded up into a packet that hides all the raw edges. And besides the beading on the edge, there are 3 small 'stacks' with sequins on either side of the little packet.

So, without further ado.

no.32


no.33


no.34


no.35


no.36


no.37


no.38


no.39


The constant beads are the opaque yellow and the dark pink size 15 seed bead which tops the stack. They are done in sets, the bead for the day counterchanged with the opaque yellow on the edge, but in the same order in the stack.

This close you can see that the other bead does change every other day. But from a distance they actually pretty much look the same. This is a good trick for keeping interest in your work. When these little beaded fabric packets are used for embellishing something else, they will all go together, but they will have more interest because they aren't all exactly the same.

I used this same idea with the embellishment on the coat for 'Midnight Dance by Moonlight'. On the skirt, each moonbeam looks similar, but up close they are made up of a different set of beads for each moonbeam.

Detail showing two of the beaded moonbeam patterns on the lower part of the coat.

Some of the other beaded parts of the coat and gown can be seen here.