How To: Extreme Bead Embroidery

Beadweaving is a challenge and can yield and immense reward. The time required to complete a large-scale work can be mind-boggling if meant to be completed all at once. However, there are succinct steps along the way as we can see with the planning and execution of You & Eye—made of glass, cotton, nylon, leather, and sterling silver.

A collaboration with Israeli lampwork artist Ronit Dagan, this piece became a test of my will to bead in a single color. It began with an idea for the shape of the piece. The number of eye beads by Ronit which were at my disposal leant themselves well to a flat and wide collar. The beads and crystals were laid out on a paper roll and the initial pattern of the collar was cut.

The cut paper pattern was then used as a guide to snip out the same shape from a plain white cotton and a couple layers of medium weight fusible interfacing. All cotton and interfacing layers were fused with the heat of a household iron—in this case it is a studio iron dedicated soley to the pursuit of beadful things. The beads and crystals were laid out again and it was found there was an excess of surface area to the collar and the base was trimmed. The elements were placed a final time pre-beadwork and circles were drawn directly upon the cotton base to indicate where each component would ultimately lay—a letter key was assigned to each position being marked both on the cotton in pencil and on a small piece of paper and placed in a small plastic bag with each element.

Then the main event began—the massive task of encapsulating the elements upon the cotton base and completely covering the cotton base with white beads. Each element was bound to the cotton base by a round bezel which ran around the outer diameter of each. Rows of beads were added diminishing in size and locking in around the element and preventing it from moving. Further embellishing in the form a fronds were applied to the bezel beadwork around each eye.

Having a relatively short attention span, I would switch between bezelling in components and covering the surface with bead embroidery—a personal approach not apparent in the finished product. Once the cotton base was completely covered a piece of ultra soft and ultra white lambskin leather was cut to spec and glued to the underside of the piece to hide all the beautiful stitching secrets and was bound around the entire perimeter with a lashing of more white seed beads. And, a custom closure was fashioned with an additional Ronit Dagan bead and sterling silver wire and components.

With nearly 20 years of beading experience under my belt, I’m known as a “Speed Beader.” Even with a great amount of experience I estimate You & Eye was completed in approximately 200 to 400 hours. While this piece required many hours at the bead bench, bead embroidery need not be so demanding. But, in this case it was certainly worth it.

Supporting images are below.

This article also appears on Teach Street.

Beginning with possible layout

Initial paper pattern

Pattern atop layers of cotton and interfacing

Revisiting layout of elements

Beadwork late into the night

Closeup of outline and bezelled elements

Filling in with surface embroidery

Possible fringe idea, later abandoned