Christy H Finished and Framed Her 12 Pieces!

Actually, Christy finished her BJP pieces for this year quite a while ago and is now working on the current year's BJP. Finally, I got around to photographing her last four pieces and put them on my blog, here.

Christy and I worked together to prepare her 12 pieces for framing. Thinking our process might be useful to others in the BJP, I wrote a tutorial about how to do it. It's the second half of the post (here.)

Great work, Christy!!!!! Thanks for allowing me to share it with the group!

Robin A.

Please think back for a moment...

...to the beginning of the 2007 BJP... your first piece... June...

How did you choose your shape/size?

After sticking with it for the whole year,

are you still satisfied with your choice?

Why or why not?

What suggestions do you have for new members joining the 2008 BJP regarding this important decision that must be made at the very start of the year? How will you choose your shape/size for 2008 now that you have a year's experience behind you?

Thanks for taking your time to comment! And congratulations to all those who are now finished (or finishing) with 12 pieces. Every day I check the member gallery on our website with eager anticipation of seeing more! To say they are awesome is such an understatement... words fail me...

Robin A.

What to Bead on?

This question was asked before, but now that some folks have answered that they use Peltex, I have a question. Is that like Timtex? Do you bead directly on the surface of the Peltex/Timtex or do you put fabric over it and bead on the fabric with the Peltex as backing? Thanks for all of you who share with us!

Regarding Tips...

I notice that a few people already have tips on their blogs. If you want to share these with other BJPers on the FAQS page of the website, we can just put a link to your blog. Please just add your blog site to the comment section on tips and we'll make sure to add a link.

Here's a tip I want to learn: how to stop poking my thumb and index finger with the needles.
My skin is tattered on those two fingers, and I think the needle sometimes thinks my skin is fabric. Help!!

Tips, tips, we want your tips!

For our new website we are creating a Faqs page. One of the features will be bead embroidery tips.

What are your best tips?
What have you learned about bead embroidery that you'd like to share?
What do you bead on?
What is your favorite thread and needle?
How do you get your ideas?
What would you do differently?
What tip did someone share with you that made a difference in your beadwork?

And, of course, any other suggestion that you would like to share.

FYI

There have been several posts to the QuiltArt list this week about using Fireline for beading on fabric pieces that may be ironed. The consensus is that it will melt if it comes in contact with direct or even indirect heat (using teflon press cloth). I don't use Fireline, but I know some of you have mentioned it as an alternative to beading thread so I thought I would pass along the caution.

SueU

Photographing your Beadwork or Jewelry

I've been experimenting with jewelry photography and share my experience here. If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Also, if anyone would like to share their experiences with taking photographs, I'd love to hear about them!

-Karen

Need a Little Help

I am a frog collecter so my nine year old granddaughter made me a frog pin for Christmas. It's a quilled frog on a Sculpey lily pad. She glued the frog on the lily pad with super glue but it didn't hold. I don't want to experiment and ruin her project so I am wondering if any of you know what glue will bond Sculpey and paper. Will E6000 work? Any suggestions?

Happy Beady New Year!

Timaree

What kind of surface do you bead on?

Greetings to all my fellow beaders ~

A question...what kind of surface do you bead on -- what's on top of your work table, that is? The reason I ask is that I'd like to find a different solution from my current one. I copied what a friend of my does, but it's not working that well for me. Her solution is to use a rectangular piece of felt where she has little piles of beads scattered around. The beads don't roll at all and do tend to stay in one place. As she's working, she just dips her needle in to whatever bead pile she's choosing in the moment. When I do this -- and it must be the way I try to "scoop" them onto my needle -- the needle catches in the felt, sort of snags it, and beads get flung clear across the room!!! Not all the time, but enough to be really annoying now. So could some of you help me out here? What's a good solution for my work surface?

Thanks so much for any tips,

Christi, in WA state

Task lighting: which OTT-Lite is the brightest?

As the days grow shorter, the light is growing dimmer and I'm finding that I need a lot more light for all this beading work. Awhile back I purchased an Ott-Lite, the floor lamp version (the goose neck style that you can bend & twist directly over your project) and although I really love working in its daylight spectrum, I'm finding it's just not bright enough and I'm having a lot of eye strain. I thought a solution might be to purchase a second one, a table top style, so that I could have one on each side. I also bead a lot with a friend of mine and the floor lamp alone is definitely not working when there's two us -- we both go blind! Then it occurred to me to ask the *experts* -- what are you gals (and guy :>) using for task lighting? I'm especially interested in any daylight-balanced lamp that's VERY bright.

Thanks for any suggestions,
Christi, in WA state

Thoughts on Getting Unstuck...

I've been reading posts by the Behinders, More Behinders, and Behinderests... and first I must compliment you on your bravery, honesty and wisdom to post about it! With some members posting about being ahead of schedule, it takes courage to admit in writing that you are behind.

Probably, at one time or another all of us will get stuck and become a Behinder... Here are a few thoughts about getting unstuck:

Be Average

One member said she's stuck... that she's even been to the library, etc. searching for ideas... Could it be that she is trying too hard to do exceptional work or to come up with something meaningful? I've found that trying too hard is a terrible block for me. But as soon as I let go of that idea, and say "Ok, I'll just make something average this month," it starts being fun again.

Recently a wonderful friend sent me one of the most significant gifts ever: Improv Wisdom, a book by Patricia Ryan Madson, has already changed my life! Masdon says, "Striving for an original idea takes us away from our everyday intelligence, and it can actually block access to the creative process." Don't you just love the concept of "everyday intelligence?" It seems so applicable to our BJP work.

Start Anywhere

I notice that my beading flows along without effort whenever I do what is natural, what is easy, what is apparent to me. In her book, Improv Wisdom, Madson says, "All starting points are equally valid... There's no need to find the right starting place. When you don't know where to start, begin with the most obvious thing, whatever is in front of you." Once underway, the project will seem less daunting.

Forget the word "Should"

Sometimes too many choices will block me. If I get out too many beads, I feel stuck. I learned a solution to this problem in a process painting class: don't ask yourself, "Which bead should I choose?" The word "should" is such a blocker, because it implies that there is a right answer. Instead ask yourself, "If I were going to choose one of my beads or bead colors, which one might it be?" The words "if" and "might" give you some space. It will be easy to point to a bead and say "That one!" Seize this precious first thought and honor it!

I hope these ideas are helpful.

Robin A.

How to attach stones?

Greetings fellow beaders ~ I'm hoping some of you will share a few tips with me about how to attach stones to my pages? I've been noticing on many of your blogs that you use cabachons (sp?), found stones, etc. and I can't figure out how you attach them. I have a couple of small beach stones that I want to include on my pages, but I'm not sure the best way to secure them. I am using a nice, stiff Timtex backing, so I know it will hold them. I've thought about putting seed bead "lassos" around them but I know there must be alternatives to this (which covers up the stone faces quite a bit). Any suggesstions?

Thanks so much,
Christi in WA state

Acid Free Interleaving Papers

I was teaching last weekend and had in between time to really go through your bead embroidery book line by line with regard to some techniques and preservation methods.
Thank you Robin for advising us to use Acid Free Interleaving Paper to back our bead embroidery work with when we need to add enough body to hold our bead embroidery properly on the surface of our work. So many of us don't think about the future and what happens to our work over time. We put in so much love, attention and time to our work that it would be a shame not to take one extra step that takes only minutes to assure a longer life to our creations.
I know that using acid free fabrics, tissues and papers like those in scrapbooking are wise to use. I never thought of Interleaving papers. These are used in the restoration and preservation of textiles, paintings, books, bindings and all sorts of other precious items.

Inspiration

If you have a few minutes and would like to see some beautiful quilts, NQA has posted pictures of the 2007 Major Award winners on the following site.

www.nqaquilts.org/2007show

Free Sample of Interleaving Paper!

Would anybody like a free sample of acid-free interleaving paper? It's the paper I use to stabilize my bead embroidery. It even allows me to sew beads on very fine fabrics such as light-weight silks. I draw the shape of my piece on the paper, then baste along the drawn line attaching it to my fabric. The basted line is my guide on the fabric side for sewing the beads. This paper is very easy to sew through, yet keeps the tension even and the work unpuckered. And it's archival. In fact, that's it's normal purpose - to layer between textiles in museum storage systems.

If you'd like to try a sheet of it, please send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope, with the word interleaving printed on it. My address is: Robin Atkins, 837 Miller Road, Friday Harbor WA 98250. You can try it and see how you like it compared to stiff-stuff, hoop or other stabilizing method.

Posted by Robin A.

Stitching Question

I have a question for you more experienced bead embroiderers. I'm using a double strand of Silamide, knotted together at the end. The problem I'm having is sometimes the two strands of thread do not pull through to the surface of my work at the same rate, leaving a loop of one strand on the back which, of course, I don't notice until I've reached what I think is the end of my thread and I turn the work over to knot off. I'm sure it's got something to do with the way I hold or manipulate the needle/thread, but does anyone know of a way to avoid this?

Sue in western WA

Italiano, Deutsch, Francais, Espanol!

I hope I spelled all those languages correctly. I couldn't pull up the tranlator emblem like I wanted so am just putting the link here. If you need to translate a page or blog you can do it through this site. They have links to add to your blog to make it easier.

Spero che abbia ortografato correttamente tutte quelle lingue. Non potrei tirare su l'emblema di tranlator come ho desiderato in modo da che mette appena il collegamento qui. Se dovete tradurre una pagina o un blog potete farli attraverso questo luogo. Hanno collegamenti da aggiungere al vostro blog per renderlo più facile.

Ich hoffe, daß ich alle jene Sprachen richtig buchstabierte. Ich könnte nicht das tranlator Emblem hochziehen, wie ich also morgens wünschte, welches gerade hier die Verbindung setzt. Wenn Sie eine Seite oder ein blog übersetzen müssen, können Sie es durch diesen Aufstellungsort tun. Sie haben die Verbindungen, zum Ihrem blog hinzuzufügen, um es einfacher zu bilden

J'espère que j'ai orthographié toutes ces langues correctement. Je ne pourrais pas tirer vers le haut l'emblème de tranlator comme je voulais ainsi AM mettant juste le lien ici. Si vous devez traduire une page ou un blog vous pouvez le faire par cet emplacement. Ils ont des liens à ajouter à votre blog pour le faciliter.

Espero que deletreara todas esas idiomas correctamente. No podría levantar el emblema del tranlator como deseé así que apenas que ponía el acoplamiento aquí. Si usted necesita traducir una página o un blog usted puede hacerlo a través de este sitio. Tienen acoplamientos a agregar a su blog para hacerlo más fácil.

I hope this helps everyone.

June BJP Posted on Blog

I posted my June page on my blog this morning if anyone is interested in having a look and leaving comments.

I also have a couple book recommendations, I am a confessed, but not reformed, "bookaholic". Steve was thrilled when I started selling some of my extensive quilting book collection on Amazon.com. Little did he know that I was actually just selling off the books that were no longer of interest to me and replacing them with books on art quilting and beading, men can be so naive.

ColorWorks by Deb Menz: a wonderful color workbook that has beaded examples for all the color exercises. Interweave Press ISBN 1-931499-47-0

Designer Bead Embroidery 150 patterns and complete techniques by Kenneth D King: the patterns are mainly for clothing and accessories, but I think I will probably incorporate some in my pages over the next year. Creative Publishing international ISBN 13:978-1-58923-272-3

These two books are of course in addition to all of Robins books and the one by Larkin Van Horn that was mentioned earlier. Plus numerous books on jewelry construction, one in particular is Beaded Jewelry with Found Objects by Carole Rodgers that has wonderful pictures and extensive directions for beading with cabochons ISBN 0-87349-684-1

Have a Happy 4th of July, for those in the US and everyone else have a great week.

Help with Embroidery Threads

I just found out that silamide shreds when it's used with stiff stuff. Oh joy! Oh rapture! And it doesn't like to be threaded onto a needle. I've even tried using Thread Heaven on it to make it thread easier with little or no luck.

I don't like threads too much, anyway and this doesn't help. I'm a Fireline girl myself.

Can you more experienced embroidererers (sorry, can't help myself sometimes) please shed some light on this for me?

Thanks! Any

One Little Question

My felt has arrived, I have my plan in mind and a little on paper. But - I have a question. Should I fuse a woven backing to my wool felt or will it hold up to extensive beading. My circle will be 5-6" in diameter and will later be sewn to more felt as a backing. I wonder if any one of all of us beaders knows the answer. If not, I'll let you all know how it turns out and then we will know. Thanks for any help anyone can give.

Happy Beading!!