The Art of Bead Embroidery: A Preview

Over the years, my bead embroidered creations have drawn the most comments and admiration.  I learned the basic techniques from Joyce Scott and Robin Atkins, and took them from there.  I even wrote an article for Quilting Arts about bead embroidery.  You could say I know a lot about the technique.

I am currently in the process of writing an e-book about how I do my bead embroidery, with tips and hints to help you make this simple technique part of your embroidery repertoire.  Here’s a sneak preview of some of the work I’ll be sharing.

The technique can be used for jewelry, as in the two pins shown above.  These are great for using those accent beads that you’ve been collecting but don’t know what to do with.

This piece is designed to be wearable, but it could also serve as an embellishment on a quilt or piece of wearable art.

A detail of “Grandpa’s Garden” a bead embroidered tapestry.

The full panel “Grandpa’s Garden” 2003, bead embroidered tapestry, approximately 10″ H x 30″ wide.

My e-book will explain how to make objects like this using simple embroidery stitches with beads.  It will also include a gallery of work to inspire you and a listing of suppliers so you can get started on your own bead embroidery journey.  I am really excited about sharing this knowledge with you, and love that in the e-book format I can go deeper than I was able to in the article.  I will post when the book is closer to launch, I look forward to sharing it with you!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Every summer since my oldest daughter finished kindergarten, I have tried to have some sort of fun departure from normal creative activities around Chez Stern.  One year we tie dyed t-shirts, another we attempted papier mache.  A few years ago I declared July a month of silence, with no TV during the day, except to watch the occasional DVD from Netflix (I rented the series of films by Ray and Charles Eames that summer, so much fun).  We always enter August refreshed and ready to get back to our regularly scheduled program, albeit with a new twist from what we’ve learned.

This summer I am working with four books.  Mess by Keri Smith, Learning by Heart by Corita Kent and Jan Steward, The Confident Creative by Cat Bennett  and Rip the Page! by Karen Benke

One of the exercises mentioned in Learning by Heart is to make 100 drawings of something, I believe it was a weekend exercise.  With that in mind, and inspired by going through my work for the three shows I am currently exhibiting in, I set myself an assignment.

This is the first still life I set up:

The enamel ladle is from Marty’s Grandma Rita, the towel is an old Martha Stewart towel from KMart, and the bulbs are used Print Gocco bulbs that I loved and couldn’t throw away.

All the drawings are on 11 x 17 white drawing paper from Crafts 2000.  For these four I used a Derwent 2B drawing pencil.

Detail.

Detail.  You can see where I started to shade in the ladle.  I haven’t yet decided how detailed I want these renderings to be.

For the next three drawings I chose to focus more on the lightbulbs.  As I drew, I worked on noticing small details, like how I could see myself reflected in the bulbs.

You can see the different ways I chose to express the shadow in this detail.

Drawing three, emphasis on one bulb.

Drawing four, the minimalist approach. 

Having done these three drawings yesterday afternoon, I can see the appeal of rendering something repeatedly, as I did notice more detail as I went along.  I also am thinking of the various ways I could do the drawings, not all of them need be realistic, of course, and I can use different drawing materials to work with.  I decided to take a break after this piece and start fresh the next day.  This is going to be an interesting challenge.

Week of Art June 18

My work is the  “Week as Art” feature over at the Create Mixed Media site through June 18.  I am excited to have my collages featured on this great site.  Here is a larger image of today’s collage.  All the pieces are on 6” x 6” canvas, and blend color copies of my other works with painted papers and solid scrapbook papers.

June 18 features my favorite painted kraft paper which I decorated with a faux finishing texture tool, hand carved stamps and a silkscreen of a school of fish.  There also is recycled cereal box cardboard which was decorated with bubble wrap stamping and sequin waste stencils.  The main image is a detail of my art quilt “Marilyn.”

The originals, minus the numbers, are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Week of Art June 17

My work is the  “Week as Art” feature over at the Create Mixed Media site through June 18.  I am excited to have my collages featured on this great site.  Here is a larger image of today’s collage.  All the pieces are on 6” x 6” canvas, and blend color copies of my other works with painted papers and solid scrapbook papers.

June 17 features “That 70’s Fish”, paste paper which I bought at a scrapbook store, and hand painted recycled cereal box cardboard which was decorated with hand carved stamps.

The originals, minus the numbers, are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Show Prep

In addition to my show at the Casa Nueva restaurant here in town, and my group show with the Innovative Art Alliance at the Parkersburg Art Center, on Sunday I am hanging a show at Donkey Coffee and Espresso.  Here are a few of the pieces I will be featuring.

 

The background of this piece is painted on Fabriano cold press 300lb watercolor paper, while the monkey is painted on Arches cold press 140lb watercolor paper. It measures 30” x 22”

This piece is painted on 140lb Arches cold press watercolor paper.  I happened onto a really sweet clearance sale at Michael’s last summer and was able to get 22 sheets of this wonderful paper for around ten dollars. 

I am planning on having a few more of these pieces completed before we hang on Sunday, so I’m off to the studio.

Week of Art June 16

My work is the  “Week as Art” feature over at the Create Mixed Media site through June 18.  I am excited to have my collages featured on this great site.  Here is a larger image of today’s collage.  All the pieces are on 6” x 6” canvas, and blend color copies of my other works with painted papers and solid scrapbook papers.

June 16 features my most popular cow quilt, painted kraft paper and recycled cereal box cardboard which has been painted with acrylics and decorated with hand carved stamps.

The originals, minus the numbers, are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Week of Art June 15

My work is the  “Week as Art” feature over at the Create Mixed Media site through June 18.  I am excited to have my collages featured on this great site.  Here is a larger image of today’s collage.  All the pieces are on 6” x 6” canvas, and blend color copies of my other works with painted papers and solid scrapbook papers.

June 15 features a coffee cup image I created as a pillow sham, hand painted kraft paper and recycled cereal box cardboard decorated with hand carved stamps.

The originals, minus the numbers, are for sale in my Etsy shop.