Spring 2024: Google ended its email subscription service in 2021. I believe I've found a replacement, but haven't had time to test it. I have been stitching a little bit here and there and have some posts ready for when the email subscription is active again. Fingers crossed, I'll have time to rouse this blog out of its dormancy sometime this year.

04 May 2018

Beading Around in Circles

The green Wild Child tendrils are done and they are magnificent!

Both green beaded tendrils are shown completed. (Wild Child Japanese Bead Embroidery by Mary Alice Sinton)

The look is so beautiful and elegant. The tendrils are by no means perfectly stitched, but even so they look nice. I hope I can find a future project where I can use this technique.

Next on the agenda are the blue discs/circles around the tendrils. I'm working from the centre of the piece towards the edges.

Preparing to bead embroider the blue discs around the tendrils. (Wild Child Japanese Bead Embroidery by Mary Alice Sinton)

There are two sizes of blue beads used on the circles: small and large. The smallest circles are embellished with combinations of the small and large beads. The larger circles are outlined starting with the small size and then moving on to the large-sized beads.

The first set of blue bead embroidered discs. (Wild Child Japanese Bead Embroidery by Mary Alice Sinton)

I am a little frustrated with the look of the outlines. The circles are not very big, and the beads simply don't make very neat outlines on the tight turns. The larger beads have play around the beading thread, so they don't stay put. Also, they're not uniformly sized. I've done some extra anchoring here and there, but I think the edges are what they are. I'm not overly pleased with the look because it's kind of messy.

Several completed blue discs are shown. (Wild Child Japanese Bead Embroidery by Mary Alice Sinton)

I like how the design uses different sizes of beads so you get a sense of increased size on the circles, but I'm wondering if I'd like it better if I'd used all small beads on the circles. The edges might be neater. Perhaps I'm being too picky--they are beads after all!

Here, all the central circles are complete, including their para (i.e., seed stitch with beads) centres:

Most of the blue bead embroidered discs are now complete. (Wild Child Japanese Bead Embroidery by Mary Alice Sinton)

The next thing I'm going to do is completely different from the instructions. It's time for a little experimentation.

8 comments :

  1. I love the progress you have made on this project! And although I can see what bothers you on ths circles, the overall look it fine!

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    1. Thank you, Jessica. I'm happier with the outlines after not having looked at them for a while! I find that when I'm in the midst of stitching, the details can take on more significance than they deserve. Quite often, if I step away from something that's bothering me and come back later, it always looks better than I thought. ;-)

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  2. This is beautiful! The circles may look wonky up close but the smallest ones look like tiny flowers from a distance. Maybe, if they keep bothering you, you could replace the circles with sequins or single large beads of graduated sizes? Looking forward to seeing where your experiments take you :)

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    1. Thank you, Aurelia. Those are good suggestions!

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  3. You will get a smoother circle using size 15 small beads instead of the larger 11’s and I am happy to send you more. I was just trying to add texture to the circles by changing the Bead sizes as circles decrease. I am so delighted with your blog about Wild Child.

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    1. I kind of figured that smaller beads would create a smoother outline, but I really like the way that you designed the circles to get bigger with the larger bead size. I'm so used to focusing on smooth embroidered edges that my brain is having to adjust to how beads look! ;-)

      After stepping away from the project for a couple of weeks and then seeing it again I'm happier with the outlines and I wouldn't change them. Also, I appreciate having the opportunity to play with the beads to see how they behave. This is a great learning project!

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  4. Another suggestion if you couch every Bead you can form smoother circles

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    1. Yes, agreed! I did couch every bead and it really helped to make them behave better. :-)

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