Icing and Sprinkles (Beads and DMC stuff)

When I was ready to start the icing around the green part of the cookie, I discovered that I didn't have the right green in my stash in perle cotton, so decided to go ahead and use floss. That wouldn't do in stem stitch, so I used chain stitch instead - and it worked beautifully! It was also very easy to turn corners, whereas stem stitch wasn't.

After the usual trial and error part (learning experience) I found that six plies were perfect. This is just a fantasy, after all - not a real cookie.
The entertaining part of this, as with most of these little ornament shapes, is the trial and error part - what will work and what won't. I had originally thought to use #5 perle cotton, but the French knot blobs disappeared.

I switched to #3, and by trying out a few different "wraps" etc., I finally got what I wanted. Every little spot of icing is made with two wraps only - some tight, and some very loose, as the one with the arrow. One wrap wasn't enough, and three wraps made them stand out too far off the surface. Amazing!

Next - the "sprinkles." I started using beads with needlepoint almost 15 years ago, and as I had nobody to show me how, I worked it out myself - so it's an easy easy thing to do this way. The photo shows all that's required for this project - the little medicine bottle caps to hold them, the beads, the long, skinny beading needle, and a wire needle threader. You can see that one came from The NeedleWorks here in Austin - (mail order is quickly attended by these ladies).

These last a lot longer than the little metal one that comes with the beading needles. ( I order my needles through Bead Buddies - link on my side bar.) The other needle lying there is the chenille needle I use for surface embellishment - in this case, icing. When putting the beads onto the surface, I had to constantly remind myself that they would fall randomly when sprinkled over the surface, so I took care not to put them in any kind of order. I didn't have the green or the white ones in size 11, which would have been better, but did have the clear #250's in that size. I used the background color floss to apply them, and just dipped into whichever cap I wanted to for creating an effect of sugar sprinkles. These are all Sundance beads - three different ones.


This won't be difficult to finish - and, although it has bordered on being boring, I have already thought of others I might try, which involve pots of gold (PVV and Kreinik metallics) and bargello rainbows. As I have said, these small pieces are great for practicing and developing new skills and techniques, and stash threads can always be used.

Bead Sprinkles for the Cookie

At this point, these Shamrocks look rather flat and uninteresting and I wonder what I'm doing. I think the idea of doing cookies began when I was looking for "Shamrocks," and images of plates of cookies with icing decoration popped up on my screen.

There was one that was a kind of medium dark green, and completely covered with what looked like solid sugar sprinkles with an outline of a lighter green line of icing. The best way, I decided, would be to do it with beads in my little "beaded solid but really isn't" technique.

This came about totally by accident about five years ago when I was doing plaids, and one day was weary of stitching weft. I decided to try doing the weft bands in beads, and to my astonishment, it looked like solid beading. The warp stripes had already been stitched - where I stitch vertical bands of color in basketweave, but using only the warp stitches, and leaving the weft stitches bare for horizontals. (You can see this "warp only" basketweave effect on the shamrock in the first photo).

The gingham heart is the piece I was working on when I found this new technique that has served me well for a long time and for many projects.

Another project in which I used this was the bracelet and earring phase. I have shown these before a long time ago, but dug them out to make a point.

I think I'm going on and on about what amounts to a designer's evolution of discovering methods and technique and useful "special effects" accidentally. Happy accidents!!

Back to the cookie! The next thing to consider was the kind of beads needed to do the "sprinkles." The first time I "saw" sprinkles was when I was designing four-way-bargello eggs a while back - a year or two back, and had embellished with beads. They suddenly looked like sugar sprinkles!

For this Shamrock, I knew that colored beads wouldn't look quite right, so resorted to my very favorite effect - the clear beads (Sundance #250 size 14) applied with the same color DMC floss as the background.

I used the plain ones rather than the hexagonal, as I wanted shine but not sparkle. There is a definite difference. The sparkle of the hex beads is more like ice.


The detail of the March Birthday CQ shows the plain clear beads attached with yellow floss and looking like water drops. "Ice" was on December. The bit of aquamarine jewelry you can see was made with aqua beads worked with basketweave as usual - it even works in very small spaces!

Now - back to the Shamrock, and the amazing change with just adding the beads! There is a strange looking diagonal effect which is due to the angle and the light I used - haste is the enemy of perfection. It doesn't look this way in real life, but just appears to be a solid coating of clear sugar sprinkles with green showing through. Amazing!!















In the detail, you can see clearly the effect of the diagonal tent stitch (basketweave) worked on every other row- which means it lands only on the warp stitches (the "bumps.")
Then the beads are inserted on the weft stitches, which are little dips. This way, the beads don't clump and wobble and look crowded and messy.

Also, in the case of using clear beads with colored floss on a painted canvas, by doing the warp stitches in color instead of beads, you get stronger color for the whole piece, whereas it would be too light and frosty looking (washed out) if no colored stitches were showing.

That's all for this evening. It's now time to go steal candy out of the basket by the front door in between rings of the doorbell. Little spooks and goblins are beginning to arrive!!

The Order of Stitching! (Background and Beads)

I've had a bit of trouble thinking about "beginner" things to discuss, and just now realized that even the simple techniques of using beads with needlepoint and replicating fabrics does require a good knowledge of and familiarity with basketweave!

Way back a long time ago, I became fascinated with trying to replicate fabrics in needlepoint, as I was doing a lot of Traditional American quilt patterns on canvas, and wanted to dress up the patches that didn't have "printed" designs on them.

One of my very favorites was dotted swiss, which I had worn a lot as a small child. (My mother loved it.) I still use this from time to time for things like the background of this little cactus, and the blue part of the "beginner" flower in a previous post.

This little barrel cactus canvas (from Sundance) was posted previously (about two years ago) for showing basketweave and outlining properly executed, but I noticed that I also used "dotted swiss" on the background so it wouldn't be so plain. I didn't want to use a textured stitch that would distract from the central design - but it needed something. You can see where I marked little blue dots on the canvas to indicate where to put the "dotted" in the Swiss.

The basketweave around them HAS to be worked first, or they will kind of sink and not stand up so high so as to show up. After doing the background around the dots, simply make an X over the blank tent stitch where you've left the canvas intersection bare. If you make the dots on the intersection where the WARP thread is on top, as a little"bump," it will stand up high and show up well.

The backside of the little stocking is another example of using basketweave correctly - I usually advocate "design before background" (unless the thread is fuzzy), but have always preferred to stitch the background before the name on a stocking cuff. Several reasons - one is that the fibers from the name, if stitched first, can rub off on the white stitches and make it look "smeared."

This shows the back of one, where I simply carried the thread, doing diagonal work, across underneath where the name is drawn - you can see where I started working the name. It has beads on it, so the blue "Nina" was stitched as I do for inserting beads - basketweave on every other row, using the weft stitches, and leaving the warp bare for the beads. One thing seems to lead to another!

On this front view of the Nina sock, you can see strings of beads with "jewels." I never place the beads clumped up together on a straight line, but leave the warp thread between them. It "reads" well as a straight line of sparkle! In this case, I put Kreinik 002V braid between the beads as part of a chain of jewelry. You can see also that there are beads as well as a tent stitch in the "jewels."

By the way, when placing beads on needlepoint, never place them end to end - especially the faceted ones, as they don't quite fit the space and can look rather strange. The faceted beads aren't perfectly round like the little smooth ones, and appear more like tiny bugle beads - so are too long to be putting end to end. This is just one of the little things one learns with experience and trial and error.

The white patch of Petite Very Velvet is on my December crazy quilt heart - and shows straight lines of clear faceted beads. In this case, as they are on the diagonal, I simply marked lines where I wanted the beads and then worked basketweave around them.

Notice that the beads are NOT placed end to end, as they would have butted against each other and made the lines crooked. They read just as well with the little space between them, as they are lying sideways..

This close-up of one of the coral reef ornaments shows the lines of beads going from the sand up to the top of the sea. The little round, clear beads with the one stitch separating them look just like bubbles, I think. However, I had decided that next time I do this, I'll make the vertical line more irregular with spaces. I used both sizes (#11 and #14) clear beads #250 for this for more "bubble" effect

Next time I'll show where and why to stitch design before background and vice versa. As you can see, one can really start working some amazing but simple effects without having to resort to covering every space on a painted canvas with texured stitches.

This would be overwhelming to a beginner, as one simply cannot just go look in a lot of books and choose stitches at random. This needs to be introduced gradually. After all - we do this for enjoyment and relaxation and to create something fun/beautiful/useful - whatever - for ourselves and our friends and loved ones.

A History of Beads!!

I have no picture to show with this, as I didn't take time to ask permission - but this is a "must see."!! In the new, current issue of CQ Magazine Online, (which I enjoy, as I get great ideas for surface embellishment on needlepoint here, as well as just wonderful eye candy in the art crazy quilt genre), there is a fabulous article on the History of Beads.

This is from a museum in a suburb of Phoenix- very very interesting. Just go to the link for the magazine, click on "current issue" -and then scroll down to just below the big beautiful picture, and you'll see the link.

While you're visiting the CQ's, do look at Allison Aller's article on "Composite Flowers." It's fascinating - almost makes me want to take up crazy quilting, which I just might do some day instead of adapting it to needlepoint. There is a lot of freedom here, that I think I might enjoy - with Allison's tutelage, of course.

Evolutions in Stitches!

This evening bag is an old one - at least 7 or 8 years old. I was in my "jeweled bug" phase, and was determined to put this one onto black.

Drawing it was easy, as I used a white paint pen, but I knew I didn't want to stitch a solid background on that black canvas. Hard on the eyes at any age, especially mine!

My wonderful finisher and good friend Vikki Pinson here in Austin made this evening bag - I simply gave her the little 5" x 7" canvas, and told her to do whatever she wished with it - and this was the result. I love those sassy looking beads at the bottom.

Anyway, the background I settled on doing was the result of just playing around, some time before, on scrap canvas to see what I could come up with. Quite an evolution!

Next is a composite scan of the evolution of the stitch I used on the background. The pink heart was the first, as I was making backgrounds to use when working on learning to make silk ribbon embroidery flowers. Plain color was boring, so I marked off a grid on this one that left 4 stitches square in between. Leaving the intersections of the horizontal and verticals bare, I then put a darker pink (doesn't show up well on this scan, but I couldn't find the actual stitched piece) single tent stitch in the blank - but made one on top of that going to opposite direction (an X) to make a little bump.

That, of course, gave me the idea of using a bead there instead - thus the orange and yellow grid. On this one, you can see the progression of stitching, etc.

It uses three stitches square inside the lines, and Scotch stitch used to fill them in. Then one day I was looking at the canvas with the dots placed on it, and "saw" something else. The arrow points to the lines I drew to illustrate the placement of the long stitches made with Ribbon Floss - and the dot left in the middle for later inserting a bead there as well as in the intersections of the Ribbon Floss.

The background could, of course, be worked first in basketweave (leaving the dot bare) and then putting the Ribbon Floss into place. Very simple!!

I used black YLI Ribbon Floss Shimmer Blend on the black evening bag, with Sundance black hexagonal beads. It really sparkles and glitters!! Since I don't sparkle and glitter any more, I let Vikki keep it to illustrate her expertise in creating fabulous things with a simple needlepoint canvas.

The little green piece with beads is another story - it was on the scan, but it doesn't belong with this particular explanation/evolution, as it's worked with the dots in a different format. It led to several other patterns in a different phase. Later.

Beads for Bubbles

I had to put this away and not look at it for a while, as I wasn't content with the end result - it seemed too cluttered. However, I must remind myself, that the ocean floor and territory between sand and the surface has so much more going on than we see in a clean and orderly fish bowl - I had been looking at Anne's wonderful project and forgot that part of it. (She has now posted the finished fish bowl)

We must remind ourselves of environmental protection, as it would be a shame to lose this glorious "clutter" in the sea. I was astonished at the beautiful colors and at the variety of marine life, although I've studied it for many years. I hadn't really looked at the coral reefs closely.

I was correct in my original comment about making the spaces for the beads, representing bubbles, equidistant when I marked them. I would have put stitches to fill some of them in, but as I had worked the needle blending, it would have been a lot of trouble to figure out what to put where. The next best thing was to go ahead and put both sizes Sundance #250 clear beads, and stagger the placement - random.

With this project finished, I'm not sure what to do next - all out of ideas. Anyway, I have painting to do to keep me busy.

Nobuko Stitch and More Coral Reef Fantasy

First - I'm announcing that I finally finished Chapter II of PAINT YOUR OWN CANVAS! - so it's ready and available on my web page, Elegant Whimsies, along with Chapter I.

I'm working on another coral reef ornament - a bit different, in that I had the bright idea, after looking at many photographs taken by divers, that it needed some bubbles ascending from the ocean floor. Of course the logical thing to do is to use the Sundance #250 clear beads - the round ones, not the hexagonal.

My error in judgment was to not consider that the bubbles should have been placed at random distances apart, and not every weft stitch vertically in a line - you can see where I marked them, and have left them bare in the basketweave for later addition.

Also, I should use both sizes - the #14, and @11, as in this case, the two sizes would be more effective. Oh well. Another learning experience - for next time.

The first photo shows the five divisions I marked with a blue Sharpie drawing pen for needle blending the water. (Concentric circles were used as a pattern)

The 6th space at the bottom is there because I knew I would cover it with sand, which is marked with the light brown/gold pen. The stitching is finished through four layers, and now ready for the darkest shade - which will be 4 plies of the darker blue - only used two shades of blue on this.

Ordinarily, when using a textured stitch on an area, I would outline it first to make the edges look neat rather than messy and jagged - but in this case, the basketweave water does that job for me. Anyway, the sand doesn't need to be smooth.

I'm using Nobuko stitch, as it isn't directional, nor is it "busy" enough to interfere with embellishment on top in the form of all kinds of sea critters that live on and around a coral reef.

I was curious about the name "Nobuko," and decided to do a bit of research. It's a Japanese feminine name, meaning "girl of faith." The word also stands for truth and f idelity - a lovely name for a little girl who will hopefully grow into a woman with these characteristics.

This is a wonderful stitch, and I use it often for many things, where only a bit of subtle texture is needed. I'm showing it in two colors, simply to illustrate the "traveling" - as it begins on the right, working horizontally, and then returns (the blue row) horizontally from left back to right. Very easy.

Beads and Plaid! AHA! (and coral reefs)

The big "AHA!" is because I found the piece I started long ago for an evening bag - a pretty jazzy one! ( I was looking for something else, and stumbled upon it ). The swatch with this plaid is on my Freebies blog - and only shows it worked with silk threads.

This one was begun after I discovered the joy of the "beaded solid" effect due to a happy accident. It's stitched with DMC floss - and colored, sparkly beads from Sundance in the colors of the plaid.

This is adapted from an upholstery fabric I saw in a magazine - so easy to work with one.

The warp was stitched with the cotton first, and then the weft was begun with the beads. This was several years ago, so I have no idea in which layer in the "sparkly stuff" bin they might be found. I do remember that the two gold stripes were worked with YLI Ribbon Floss in the Honey/Copper blend - one of my favorites. It has a bit of sparkle on its own.

BTW: If you click on "beads with needlepoint" - the label - I have 68 posts about using beads on this blog - enjoy and learn! I find it rather addictive.

Here, I'm showing the "tools" of starting the new project. My mentor and instructor in this thing suggested that I use a compass (had the audacity to ask if I owned one), as it would be useful in drawing a series of concentric circles to trace onto canvas to start the shaded water on the droplet. She graphed two sides and sent them to me - the graph looks like a water drop with a toothache, but it worked beautifully to make two different drawings.

Next, of course, I checked the supply of DMC floss to choose just the right colors for water in a coral reef. Have you ever really thought about the shades of blues and greens of the ocean? Beautiful!! Creating or being aware of art really opens the eyes to the beauty around us. As Emily Dikinson said, "To live is so startling, it leaves little time for anything else."

Finally, I settled on a choice of color for the fat droplet - I made two of these, and just elongated the sides of one of them to give me more room.

On the other, I made three vertical lines (dots on the weft) to insert clear beads later that will resemble bubbles. I'll use the smooth ones rather than the hexagonal, as I don't want glitter here - just bubbles.

I think at this point I may be practicing creative avoidance, as I'm terrified of beginning the surface enhancement (after stitching the backgrounds, of course) - the seaweed/branch coral /sea shells/starfish, etc. etc. - and sea fans made with Memory Thread and Satin Floss. Maybe even a tiny, colorful fish or two stitched on the surface with waste canvas. Oh My!!

Beads with Needlepoint (and a Plaid Egg)

I was working on the plaid egg last night, and was thinking that if I hadn't been stitching this to illustrate setting up and using a plaid pattern on an actual project, I would have incorporated beads into it. (my favorite thing).

A number of years ago - probably six or eight, I was fooling around with plaid again, and one day was bored with the heart I was working on, and decided to see what would happen if I used beads on the weft (as it is on the "dips" of the canvas weave) instead of thread.


















What a surprise when the result had a spectacular resemblance to a surface beaded "solid." I had previously only used beads in tiny spaces - such as little round things or "jewels" on patterns, as they clumped up and were uneven on the surface. As I like to use beads as part of the needlepoint itself, this wasn't acceptable, and wasn't really very pleasant to work.

I was so excited that I never finished the little heart - but moved on to the next thing: Another heart in "gingham" in two colors and white. (didn't finish it either, but it's a great illustration.) By working beads into the fabric of the needlepoint this way, they become part of it, and the surface is smooth and uninterrupted, as beads placed on the warp "bumps" will stand up and wobble.

Of course more fun experiments happened - and one of my favorites was the hat inset I worked for Vikki Pinson (who is a fine milliner, as well as a world class finisher) with leopard spots. I used the Sundance black hex beads for glitter, and then just used the different pattern on the background - widely spaced - with beads that gleam softly rather than sparkle.

Incidentally, one uses size 14 beads (When using Sundance) on 18 mesh canvas, and size 11 on 13 mesh.

I have since made giraffe and zebra print napkin rings and bracelets with this technique - and also, several years ago, cuff bracelets with "lace" and flowers, with matching earrings. Lots of Possibilities here!!

"The World is so full of a Number of Things, I'm sure we should all be as Happy as Kings." (Robert Louis Stevenson, "A Child's Garden of Verses.")

ADDENDUM:There are napkin ring and bracelet patterns on Freebies, and my BEAD book is now in E-Book form on my web page, Elegant Whimsies, divided into two chapters.

Beads on the Un-Painted Canvas

First, I want to share the Holiday card I received from the staff of Needlepoint Now - I'm sure all subscribers have one by now.

I was ROFL at the message, as I know there are very few who don't know exactly what the sentiment is saying - without having to consult color cards. Clever girl, our Elizabeth, (new owner and editor-in-chief of the magazine), whose name is signed in what looks more like 002HL than 202HL.

So now to the business at hand. I haven't been diligent about posting lately, as I was busy with other things, and working on three canvases simultaneously. The Sunflower Cross in Talavera is the first of these on which I have been able to use beads.

These designs are so suitable for my enjoyment of using simple stitches (almost entirely basketweave) with simple materials - mainly DMC floss and Kreinik metallics. However, I felt that the sunflower center definitely needed something extra, so I placed ink dots on the weft threads in a lattice pattern based on a count of 3. Then, DMC floss in brown is worked around the dots in basketweave, and then beads placed. (Sundance, of course, in brown - not sparkling, but simply shiny.)

The next photo shows how the cross looks now, with some color added. I have been watching a most delightful BBC mini-series on DVD's, (The Duchess of Duke Street) and decided to just do outlining, which doesn't require much concentration - just relaxing.

You can see how the simple color markings with the Sharpie permanent pen are guides to shading the flat flower petals. There was no need to paint them, but I did need guidelines.

The burgundy colored diagonal band is worked with DMC cotton floss and Kreinik metallic blending filament in a Vintage color almost the same.

I really like this Vintage, as it doesn't sparkle, but emits a subtle gleam in the orange and the burgundy on this piece.

The last two pictures are of one of the "mini-crosses," first with just some color added, and the last one with background - this shows so well how the pattern really pops out against the matte floss in navy 018.

Now - back to an evening with the Duchess and more stitching. Tomorrow I paint!! At this time, I am planning great entertainment with old Tyrone Power swashbuckling movies from the 50's - which I loved when I was an impressionable child.

If I had had the chuzpah of the Duchess of Duke Street, my children wouldn't be running my life now.

BEADS on a "Jeweled" Bracelet!!

I very much enjoy using the pretty threads and other materials for needlepoint that weren't available to us in the decade of the 70's - and also the imaginative things we can do with them. What I like doing most, however, is creating what I call "special effects with simple materials."

These napkin rings that could be lengthened and made into bracelets were shown a while back on my Freebies - (the pattern for them is there), and were inspired by my daughter's love of emeralds, and also the fact that her husband's birthday is in April - fortunate for her!! I thought jeweled napkin rings would be a festive touch for a birthday dinner.

Anyway, the first picture is showing the DMC cotton floss, worked in a tent stitch with 4 plies, on the WARP threads only, leaving the weft "dips" for inserting the beads. The tiny little diamond chain from which the emeralds are suspended, was placed on the canvas carefully, to make sure there would be only one warp stitch in the configuration of the little diamond shape - and of course the very very small one only has one stitch, which is weft to accomodate one bead. (a sparkling, hexagonal Sundance bead - crystal clear size 14 in the #250Hex)

The next picture shows the beads in place on some of the jewels. I used green beads that aren't "hex," as I didn't want the sparkle on the emeralds. While it's great on the diamonds, it's too much for the green stones.

This effect of nothing more than Petite Very Velvet, Kreinik #12 braid in 002V, and Sundance beads makes a stunning effect, yet is so simple - no fuzzy or glittery threads and no decorative stitches except the long-armed cross stitch I like to use at top and bottom, as it makes the edges fold over nicely - and is pretty in this braid.

I also put little single bead "jewels" suspended from the edges. I used the clear beads with green floss, but am not really happy with the look - so I tried a green bead farther down the row, and it's great! Out come the sharp scissors.



The diamond chain bracelet has a great effect with the two colors, I think. n this one, I'll use the clear hex beads at top and bottom, but will apply them with blue floss on the top, and green on the bottom. This makes sense. The detail of the diamond bracelet is showing where the weft threads were left bare for bead insertion.

When drawing this onto canvas, one would take care to make sure the square cut ones have five WEFT spaces, and four WARP spaces. The diamond shapes have 9 weft, and only 4 warp spaces. If attention is given to these small details, it makes the work easier. All it requires is a little experimenting on scrap canvas.

There's still time, as these are small, to even make jeweled bracelets for holiday parties - or sew them onto the cuffs of an evening jacket - lots of possibilities here. Do experiment - and with other motifs, too, than jewels.

ADDENDUM: I failed to mention that this technique for using beads (the simple way) is explained in detail in Chapter I of my book about using beads with needlepoint. I've divided it into two chapters for the downloadable e-patterns, or it's also offered as a coil bound "workbook." You can see it at Elegant Whimsies - my web store.

BEADS! The Many Faces for Needlepoint

I love beads incorporated into needlepoint - which is obvious, I think, as I just looked and have about 63 posts on this blog (three years old last September - time flies)

Also have a book on this subject in my "Coloring Book" series, which is available both as a book and as E-Books in two chapters on my web page.(Elegant Whimsies)

In the first photo, (an old one), I used beads on the background by placing one at each intersection of the open work done in ribbon floss - very effective! The second photo is a bracelet and earring I made about two years ago - there are two different patterns, and as I remember, they are shown at Fireside Stitchery already made up (cuff bracelets) On this one, I used beads in my "solid" technique that really isn't solid, but looks that way.


The blue Petite Very Velvett patch has the clear Sundance beads applied with floss the color of the background - gives the effect, I think, of rain drops on a cold winter night in December - or is it ice? (We don't have much ice here.) I love this effect of using the clear beads with colored floss, as it gives a different dimension to the surface texture.
Seed beads also make great cactus spines on a tiny little cactus! The leaves are PVV, and the beads have a finish that doesn't sparkle and glitter - so have a great look for this.

All of these projects are showing on this blog in numerous previous posts - as I started using beads and experimenting with them about ten years ago. A GREAT accessory to jazz up the work when textured stitches won't do - or just for the beauty of the beads.

There seems to be a bit of confusion about the term "seed bead." Seed beads are uniformly shaped, spheroidal (round) beads ranging in size from very very tiny to several MM. These are termed "seed beads" as opposed to "bugle beads" and other types and shapes. I did check this info with the dictionary to make sure of my facts.

I use exclusively the Sundance Beads, as they have an enormous variety of colors and finishes - not just the shiny or sparkly! Also, in the packaging, they are so totally uniform in size that I very rarely have to discard one, as opposed to other brands. I use, for incorporating them into the body of the work, the size #14 on 18 mesh, and #11 on 13 mesh. Other sizes could be used, of course, for different decorative effects.

Incidentally, using beads on needlepoint is the subject of my next article in Needlepoint Now - stitching the Mindy Canvases! ( I need to go finish those beautiful things.)

Beads and Cotton Thread for Painted Canvas

I never thought I would say I'm tired of beads - but tonight I am. When a deadline for finishing a project approaches, it's kind of not fun any more. However, I recover quickly from this malady.

Showing pictures of this canvas has been a "before, during, and after" thing, as I want to demonstrate what a great effect it is to just use clear beads instead of a lot of textured stitches (which would clutter up the design anyway), and just plain fine cotton floss - DMC.

In this shot you can see the flower fairly well filled in, but the leaf and some of the surrounding squares are not finished - just filled with skipped basketweave. So far, it is behaving like I wanted it to, with the beaded pattern area standing out from the very plain background.
In the close-up, where the top arrow points, you can see the great contrast of the white DMC perle cotton against the beaded peony. I used the perle instead of floss here, as I wanted a different texture from the floss of the background, but not as textured as the beads. It's an element of the design itself - and not background, as is the dark dark green. The lower arrow points to a great effect achieved by using the beads on the veining of the flower, but leaving the base and the outline plain with floss only.

Remember as you look at this, that the ONLY beads I used throughout are the clear ones (Sundance #250). I did use green beads on that one line around the border and for the little green spots on the tiny tiles in the background of the canvas.

The next picture shows a great area of the peony beaded "solid" as well as the leaf across the top.


This canvas, in the Art Nouveau style (from Mindy) is beautiful in pattern and color, and would have been fine stitched in just basketweave all over. However, I felt it needed a bit of excitement both in the stitching and for the look - so I used beads. They shine more than they sparkle, so it looks good, and not overwhelming.

The little squares on the background of the canvas also now have beads on them in a regular, geometric placement - very subtle.


The last picture is another close-up showing the effect of the beading of the flower and the leaf across the top of it. I think on this one you can see the difference in the white of the flower and the white of the perle cotton around it. The paint on the peony is just slightly "off white," so I used DMC floss #3865, which is not ivory as the 712, but is different from the white white of the perle cotton. It makes a lovely and noticeable contrast.

Tomorrow I'll get back to the Oriental jewel toned piece of Mindy's, and am looking forward to the change of colors! After watching Anne working on the water around the fishes, I've had underwater images on the brain all day when my mind needs to be elsewhere.

I am a great lover of the undersea flora and fauna, and pictures of sea fans have been running around in my head. I can see them now - with Kreinik blending filament for a bit of sparkle. More on that later, along with an ancient canvas I've had for almost 25 years.