Good evening !
Last week, I felt like beadweaving a bit, for a change. Beaded beads sounded like a good idea, but I wanted delicate, small ones; and most tutorials I know of are using wodden beads of 15mm or more. So I decided I’d create a beaded bead, aka BB, myself: my very first one ! Continue reading
Hi there!
Just a quick post today, on how to make beautiful rows of Tila, notably along a curve. You can have a look at the top row on the Queen of the Incas, to see what I mean. Continue reading
Hello again !
Here are some embroidered earrings !
Starring two swarovski stones in subtle tones of blue, these earrings take their name from the Swarovski color of the top cab.
Continue reading
Good morning !
Here it is at last ! Well, I’m sure you’ll have guessed already what a huuuuge amount of work went into this embroidered neck piece. But it was worth it. With its shape and colors, this necklace reminds me of the breastplates that can be found in ancient monuments in central America: so its name came in easily !
The starting point for this neckpiece was the sea sediment jasper cab, which I’ve had for some time now. I was just waiting to find the perfect setting to best showcase its daring mix of turquoise and reddish brown.
Hi there !
The tutorial of the day is: how to add a fringe to an already finished piece of embroidery ? Fringes are fun, easy to make, and add a sophisticated touch to an embroidered piece. So I’m sure you’ll love it !
To do that you’ll need to have your bead embroidered piece Continue reading
Hello !
I’m pleased to introduce this new bead embroidery tutorial to you. You have now painstakingly created a beautiful embroidery design on ultrasuede: hold on a bit longer, you’re not done yet. Let’s do the finishes ! In this tutorial, we’ll have a look at how to (carefully) cut the piece and make a brick-stitched border.
Good morning !
Sorry for the delay in translating the article… Weekend has been pretty busy for me, with a new embroidery project…
So, here is a new embroidery lesson, probably the most important one: how to make your embroidery stitches, and havec them look nice and neat ! Let’s say, you have followed my class on how to embroider a cab here (or a Rivoli or some other Swarovski stone there). You also have the layout of your piece in mind thanks to this article. Now the question arises: how am I going to do the embroidery around it ?
What we’re going to look at is the following: how to make nicely aligned rows of beads; how to correct bead misalignment; how to correctly space cabs and stones, and how to make picots. We’ll especially get a close look at which are the common mistakes you might want to avoid, in order to have a professional-looking finished piece.
Other bead artists have their signature techniques, like Heidi Kummli and the netting, for which I can only recommend you to check their books if you want to learn about them.
1. Making a row of beads (e.g. around a cab). Push your needle up through the ultrasuede, at a distance of approximately half a bead (whatever bead you’re using for the row, use half of its size), so that the beads will position themselves naturally on the fabric, following the thread. If you get your needle too close to the cab (or previous row of beads), the new beads are going to push against it, causing them to position incorrectly, or even putting the former row in disarray. Too far, and you’ll have an inelegant space between your rows of beads.
To embroider, do the following (to embroider the beads 4 by 4): add 4 beads, go through the fabric, then get up between bead 2 and 3, making sure to be in exact alignment with the thread. Go through beads 3 and 4 again, add 4 beads, and so on. See the graph for a better understanding.
If your cab is big enough, or the curve you are following rather smooth, you can do the beads 6 by 6 (in which case, you need to get your needle back up in the middle of the row, between bead 3 and 4). The interest of doing so (appart from it being faster of course 
) is that, what causes your bead to misalign is usually when you push your needle up through the beads at a slightly wrong place. So, more beads per stitch = less need to thread through the fabric = better alignment. However, be careful with the curve you want to follow. For instance, when embroidering a row around an 8mm Swarovski strass, use the 4 bead stitch, as the 6 bead stitch won’t allow you to tightly follow the curve around it.
Overall, here is what you’ll want to pay attention to:
- Don’t embroider your beads too tightly. If you’re embroidering 4 beads, make room for 4.5 beds, which will allow them to position naturally, and will also make sure you have comfortable room to push your needle back up between the beads.
- Keep a constant distance of 1/2 a bead between the former row (or cab) and the place where you push your thread, to prevent your beads from heading in all sorts of different directions, which you’d have to correct afterwards.
2. Correcting a bead misalignment. Once a row is done, even if you carefully followed my advice, chances are your beads will still be slightly misaligned (see first picture on the right). Let’s make it right ! To make it better, you simply have to go through all the beads at once a couple of times. As the beads fill up with thread, they shall fall back in line (like in the second picture on the far right).
3. Get the right spacing between a new stone and the already embroidered rows. You can always glue a new cab directly next to the previous rows; however, notably if you want to embroider a circle of beads around it, you’ll probably want to leave the right space between the spot where you’ll glue your cab and then rest of your work. On the pictures, you can see how I lay needles with beads on the fabric to get the right spacing, before I glue the new cab on.
4. Make picots: it’s the perfect stitch to fill in a small space, and works nicely with larger-size beads (8/0 or 6/0 seed beads, bicones, rondelles, etc.). On the next picture, you can see how I make a picot with a 4mm Swarovski bicone. To make one, exit the fabric at the place where the center of the bead should be (with picots, beads don’t lay sideways on the fabric but are standing up, the hole thus resting at a right angle with the fabric). Take into account the size of the bead, so that it doesn’t push away the other beads around it. Thread through your bead, and add a smaller size bead (in this case, a 15/0 gold-plated charlotte). Then, go back through the bigger bead but not through the smaller one, which will position on top of the hole and block the big bead. Push your needle through the fabric at approximately the same spot where you exited it. And that’s it ! This technique is easy, and if you make several picots side by side, you can fill in a bigger space with these.
So, you should now be familiar with the main embroidery stitches. Don’t forget to check out the other embroidery lessons !
Hi ! Here comes a lesson which will give you a few hints on how to plan an embroidery piece, from the simple ones to more complex neck pieces.
Start with making a selection of the beads you’ll want to use. I recommend that you check out this article on how to use color to make unforgettable pieces of jewelry here. It should help you make a nice selection of colors that will complement and highlight each other. After all, given the time you might end up spending on your embroidery, it’s worth making sure the result will be as good as your expectations.
You can see on the right a couple of bead selections I made, with complementary colors: in one case, a teal, turquoise, anis and fuchsia color palette; next to it a purple, yellow and orange color set; in the last one, a khaki green and red harmony.
Once this is done, lay your structural pieces (e.g. the cabs, stones and biggest beads) on a white piece of paper, or even better, on the ultra-suede itself, so that you can see how the background color affects your transparent beads. Don’t hesitate to make several tries and take pictures to compare ! You can also start with a drawing on paper.
If you’re at a loss for inspiration, two shapes I often use are the triangle, pointing downwards, that allows you to have one big cab in the middle and 2 or 3 smaller cabs in each corner; and the oval, which allows you to more or less evenly position beads around a central cab.
Once you have chosen the design you want, you need to plan on your ultra-suede. In the example I’m using, I decided for a triangular shape. I’m starting with the symmetry axis, which I trace with a pencil on the fabric. Then, I trace the contours of my cab and I position the other pieces to get a feel for how they should be positioned, in relation with the symmetry axis and the cab. Which is how I also trace the other two lines (see picture below), that I’ll use to position the other elements in the top corners. I’m not tracing the contours of the smaller cabs yet, because once the central cab is set in peyote, I’ll want to make sure I have the right spacing between the peyote rows and the cab (see the tutorial there to see what I mean about getting the right spacing)The other beads I’m planing to use aren’t structural for the piece, so I’m not tracing them.
So, now your piece is planned, you can go ahead with the embrdoidery itself ! Get started with peyoting the cab by following the tutorial here !
Hello there !
Today I’d like to give a quick overview of how to bezel a cabochon in peyote while doing bead embroidery. Especially, let’s look at the specific example of non round cabs, which are a (tiny) bit more difficult to bezel.
When do you have to bezel a cab in embroidery ? Typically, when the back of it is not absolutely flat, or when the cab is heavy, and there’s a chance it doesn’t stay in place if glued only; or, when the cab has a high profile, which wouldn’t look nice next to a simple row of beads. In other cases, you have the choice of either bezeling it or just surrounding it with a row of beads.
What you’ll need to bezel your cab is the following (you’ll need more supplies if you also want to do the backing of your embroidery piece, see my other lessons): ultra suede, a cab, 11/0 Delica, 15/0 seed beads, Nympo type thread, a robust needle (shouldn’t break or bend when going through the fabric), and some fabric specific glue (like the E-6000). Now, here is how to proceed:
1. Mark the space of your cab on the ultra-suede and glue your piece to the fabric. Next, fix the thread in the back of the cab, by threading a couple of times through the fabric.
2. Embroider a row of 11/0 Delica around the stone, just following the edge. If the cab is rounded underneath (like in this example, where it actually is a pendant, and not a cab), you’ll want to be careful not to do your row under the edge, which would stretch the fabric when the peyote rows will start “pulling” on this first row.
Work your beads 4 by 4: thread 4 beads, go through the fabric, then come back up between bead 2 and 3; go through the last 2 beads again, add 4 beads, etc.
3. You need to be careful when finishing your row: you’ll need to end up with an even number of beads. As you’re working with 4 (=even) beads at a time, either you finish by adding a final 4 beads, or you add 2, but don’t add just 1 or 3, or it would make the overall count uneven. At the end, go through the first 3 beads of the row. Don’t worry if your row doesn’t look very regular, and don’t try to correct it by going through the beads one more time, as peyote will further disturb it anyway
4. Start the peyote: just as in regular peyote, add one Delica bead, skip one bead from previous row, and go through the next bead. Go the full round, and step up at the end of the row by going again through the first bead of this row. The new beads probably won’t position nicely yet, but that’s OK !
5. Continue your peyote. When you get above a certain point, if your cab is irregular, you’ll need to decrease the number of beads (if it is a round or oval one, just switch to size 15 seed beads). Do the following: when you see that your last row of peyote doesn’t stick to the cab anymore, and when you reach an angle, instead of adding a bead, just thread through 2 beads from the previous row at once (see 2nd picture above). If you have several angles in your cab, like it’s the case in mine, just repeat it in each angle. It doesn’t have to be on the same row, though: in this example, I decreased in my 3rd row of peyote (not counting the embroidered row) for the pointed end of the cab, and in the 4th row for the 2 top angles. On the next row, when you get above the decrease, depending on how pointed the angle is, you can either add one or 2 beads, or even (when it is very pointed !) not add any. Here I added just one (see 3rd picture), so that the new row fits snugly against the stone.
6. Finish your peyote with a row of 15/0 seed beads, to give it a neatly finished look and make sure your cab is well secured. Overall, you can work any number of peyote rows: the more you add, the more the bezel will cover the stone, and the more decreases you’ll need to do. Notice how I had to add 2 15/0 seed beads above the decrease in the top angles. When done with peyote, go through the earlier rows of peyote to thread through the fabric again, and you’re ready to add more embroidered row to your piece !
Make sure to check the other embroidery lessons for more bead embroidery tips !
Talk to you soon !
Let’s browse the Internet. There’s a number of beaded necklaces, armbands and earrings out there. Most of them are nice. Some of them are beautiful. But just a few of them are breathtaking. So, you have to wonder: what’s the difference between a regular design and an amazing one ?
There’s no unique answer to that. Craftsmanship, materials, etc.: all of that counts. But one that, to me, is among the most important and that some people don’t consider sufficiently is color. Yes, just color. Doesn’t sound that hard to master, does it ?
Yet, I often find a lot of beaders, including really skilled ones, undervalue it, and go for simple color schemes, that are OK of course, but fail to create the “Woooow” effect. They chose a monochrome harmony, which in most cases doesn’t do justice to the materials and design. Different shades of blue together might look nice but – let’s put it bluntly – kind of “dull’.
On the other hand, when looking online for inspiration, there are a few beaders who, with sometimes simpler designs, really impress me and made me wonder “how did they do it?”. I’d like to introduce some of their designs to you.
Anna Hatvani Betty Stephan Guzel Bakeeva Design
In these examples, you actually see that the artist didn’t settle for a simple monochrome palette, but went looking for a perfect match between a main color, some complementary color, and even a strongly contrasting color.
Finding a striking color scheme is not trivial but, when successfully achieved, it does make up for unforgettable pieces. The 3 artists featured above have been inspirations for me when I started serious beading and especially bead embroidery. I remember browsing the Internet down to result page 14 just to find back some of the above examples, which I vividly remembered but had failed to bookmark. The subtle complement of pale green on pink, the striking matching of fuchsia and blue, the daring assembly of turquoise, violet and pinkish gold… What makes these so unique ?
Beading, and most notably bead embroidery, is a delicate craft, but it can result in visually dense and “heavy” pieces. Skillfully contrasted colors, on the other hand, have the ability to “lighten up” a beaded piece. That’s what makes these pieces so enticing for the eye (well, of course the amazing skill of their crafters plays a role too J ): it’s entertaining, it’s playful, it’s, well, beautiful.
Now, that’s all nicely said, but how to achieve these beautiful color schemes ? Most people are (rightly) afraid that if they just randomly mix colors up, it will end up being a pretty ugly piece. Which is why some beaders don’t dare to use more than one or two colors per piece, and then usually in close tones. My first (of two) piece of advice, when looking for inspiration, would be to look around you, notably at nature.
Have you noticed how nature is never tasteless in its color schemes, while taking daring stances ? Just look at these pictures:
The thing is, most of the time, you have already bought a very nice cab, or string of beads, which you want to use. So, you can’t just chose for any color pattern: you have to start from this pendant you already have. What do you do then ? Here comes my second piece of advice, and it’s a very concrete one: go there: www.colorschemedesigner.com
This tool is basically a color wheel, but with features that allow you to automatically define which color(s) will match nicely another one. Chose your pendant color on the wheel, and then decide whether you want an “Accented analogic” or “triad” (or any other) type of harmony. All right, these terms might not sound user friendly, but don’t worry, there are small graphs that show you what it means.
I’ve tried matching the picture from vegetal and animals with the tool, to see whether both are consistent with it or not, and here is what you get:
This one is what the tool calls a “Triad”
And this one is a “Tetrad”
Not too bad, is it ? I’d definitely recommend playing with this tool for inspiration whenever you’re starting a new design. Who knows ? You might end up designing one of these amazing designs I’ll remember forever afterwards…
