Last night was Wrestling with Beads Night. It doesn't look like much work but to finish the beaded edge of the halo and then attach the pairs of pearls took a lot of time. I set each halo bead individually which is time-consuming. Then I had trouble with the pearls because only 4 of them had holes big enough to insert even the smallest beading needle I own. And I have some pretty small ones!
Enter the wire threader, which you see above in the photo. These are my favorite type of needle threaders. They are cheap and usually easy to find. I used to buy mine at Walmart for 3-5 for a dollar before they stopped carrying sewing goods. I recommend when you buy them you take them all out of the package and line them up on a counter and put a drop of Superglue on each where the tiny wires connect to the base. Once the glue dries it will keep you from pulling the wires out as you tug a thread through a tiny needle's eye. This extends the life of the wire threader a very long time. Usually I have to toss my wire threaders after a year or two because the wire tips are bent, not because I've yanked the wires out.
When I have a bead with a hole that is too small for my needle, I pull out the wire threader and insert the wires into the hole, then thread the bead as if I was threading a needle. That's how I attached the pearls to this canvas. It takes forever, I'll warn you. You have to thread your needle on a knotted length of your thread, and attach it securely on the back of your canvas, then come up where you want the bead to go. Remove the needle, put the wire threader through the pearl, pull the thread through the hole. Remove the wire threader and put a needle, any needle, back on the thread and sew the bead securely to the canvas. Then come up where you want the next bead to go and remove the needle, put the wire threader through the pearl, and repeat. It takes a while to get all this done when you are attaching a dozen pearls!
When I finished I celebrated by adding a few little gold Mill Hill Petite beads on the arch framework to set off the blue Kreinik stitches and also echo the gold background. I think they look nice.
The last step is to put the gold Kreinik border around the outside of this piece. I'll do that tonight and get started on the finishing of these two pieces. I plan to talk about finishing in detail, so pull up a chair and take notes. Finishing is pretty easy if you know what you are doing.
Jane/Chilly Hollow
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2 comments:
Wow, Jane,
That seems like a lot of hard work indeed, but I must say it looks very very nice :-)
Pierrette =^..^=
It wasn't hard, just tedious. A lot of beading is like that for me. I'm beading the edge of the Byzantine Icons as part of the finishing as well. It is easy but it takes a good amount of time as you not only have to sew them on, you have to keep a close eye on them so they don't all escape and roll all over the floor.
Silly beads, stay put!!
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