Bead Arts

Technique Tuesday!

I love the paintings of the impressionists, especially Monet. I was fortunate enough to see a special exhibit at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the magic of those paintings has stayed with me ever since. This necklace is my tribute to the wonderful way that the impressionists worked with color, allowing it to blend and merge and shine until the canvas just glowed. Rather than covering the neckpiece with a solid layer of beads as I usually do, I used one of Monet’s paintings as the background and just accented it with beads.

If you need more information on the basics of bead embroidery, make sure to read through my tutorial on the topic!

1. Choose a painting to use as a background and scan it into your computer, making sure that it is copyright free.
2. Create a paper template for the necklace design by tracing around the base of a plastic CD spindle case on paper for the inside neck measurement. Draw the outer edge of the necklace by measuring two to three inches below the bottom of the circle and tapering the curve up toward each side of the neck. Scan the template into your computer, using a transparent background.
3. Using photo editing software, move the template around until you’ve found the best part of the painting to use. Delete all of the design except that which falls inside the template. Print the design out onto t-shirt transfer paper. Remember to reverse the design before printing if the direction matters.
4. 
   Iron lightweight fusible interfacing to white muslin, and iron the transfer on the front of the muslin. Cut around the design, leaving at least ½ inch of border.
5. 
   Begin backstitching beads into place. Add them in small groups of one to five beads, trying not to cover every spot. I find it helpful to work sparsely across the whole canvas, and then to go back and add more, starting with larger beads and working down to the smallest ones. This will help keep the bead distribution relatively even.
   
   
   
6. 
   Backstitch a row of 8/0 seed beads around the outline of the necklace. Run a very thin bead of fabric glue just outside of this line of beads. Let it dry and clip the fabric close to the outside of the glue line, without cutting into any of the stitching.
7. Use a small amount of fabric glue to attach the necklace to a piece of faux leather backing fabric, sandwiching in two wire-wrapped loops that will attach to thee beaded chain. These fabric pieces will all be stitched together, so be very sparing with the glue ~ you don’t want it seeping through the fabric.
8. Clip the faux leather backing even with your embroidered piece.
9. Stitch another line of beads to cover the raw edges. Pick up one bead at a time and bring the thread up through all layers of fabric, exiting behind the row of beads you added in step 6. Then pass the thread between the beads of this row, down through the bead that was just added, pick up another bead and repeat the sequence for the entire shape of the necklace. This technique leaves the edge completely finished.
10. 
    Create a wrapped-loop beaded chain for your closure. I usually add one link and a hook to one side, and three links ending with a dangle to the other side.

Materials:
Picture to use as background (original will not be harmed)
t-shirt transfer paper
1 sq. foot of white muslin
1 sq. foot of lightweight fusible interfacing
1 sq. foot of faux leather backing fabric
paper for pattern
fine-point felt-tip pen
fabric glue
Nymo O beading thread
seed beads to match the colors in your background, sizes 8/0, 11/0, 15/0
small crystals, pearls, and other beads for embellishing
8/0 seed beads for outlining and binding
5 large Czech glass beads and accent beads for chain closure
Hook
15 inches of 18 gauge wire

Tools:
photo-editing software on computer
scanner
inkjet printer
fine-point felt-tip pen
plastic CD spindle case
iron
beading needles
fabric scissors
chain nose pliers
round nose pliers
wire cutters

Copyright 2007 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

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