For the last six months or so I've been playing around with what I'll call "bead embroidery." It involves sewing beads onto the tatting after the tatted piece has already been made. Sometimes the tatted pieces already have some beads incorporated in them (as I was tatting them the beads were added) and I'm just embellishing the piece with more beads, and sometimes I just take a plain tatted piece and sew all of beads directly onto it.
It's mostly pins I make this way since they already have some kind of a filigree on the back in order to hide and attach the pin. You'll see below one pair of earrings I made this way as well.
I enjoy the process - not as much as the tatting itself, of course - but it is a lot more fun than making the little roses I used for many years to decorate these miniature little doilies. I've pretty much discontinued that line of my jewelry (although I still use the cameos for a little more of a Victorian flair) and was trying to figure out how I could decorate and keep brooches as part of my inventory.
I've certainly got plenty of beads and had quite a few piece of plain, undecorated tatting I had originally planned on decorating with the roses, so I started experimenting and my bead embroidery was born. Right now I'm still in the developmental stages; I have a few techniques and designs I like to use often but I'm always working on coming up with something different.
15 comments:
lovely Elizabeth. I have watched your pretty tatting with jewelry findings for many years, and coveted one of the broaches with cameo, but have never been able to justify the purchase. Thanks for all the eye candy, and your new pieces are really nice. your bead embroidery method looks really interesting.
FABULOUS!!! I'm all goose-bumply looking at these! What a spectacular effect!!! I love it! Of course, you have always had an 'eye' for beads and colors, not to mention design!
I remember how impressed I was back in the '90s with your idea to enhance your tatting with the filigree backings I'm glad to know my Victorian pin is now a a "Collector's Item" :)
With your busy schedule, it's great to see that you still have time to enjoy being creative! ! certainly the tiny roses (which you also made, of course!) really gave your jewelry a unique look! I remember how bowled over I was
It's me again! I see my last paragraph got kind of garbled! I wondered where that sentence went (LOL!)!
It belongs where I mention the Victorian pin, and should read: "I certainly was impressed with the tiny roses (which you also made, of course!) They really gave your jewelry a unique look. I remember how bowled over I was when I first met you and saw your tatting booth back in 1998 in Mercer, PA at Victorian Days!"
As a lover of tatting and beads, I've enjoyed seeing your wonderful jewelery. Unique and beautiful.
What gorgeous pins. I love your technique and the incorporation of the beads. Very nice!
Very pretty!
Gorgeou Pins, lovely beads they look really lovely but I expect they take a while to sew on.
Well done
Margaret
Each piece is so elegant, the thread color with the beads!! I love them all.
Wow! Those all look so wonderful! Great colors and work! :)
Very pretty!!!
I have a russian tatting book that shows how they make those beautiful necklaces with all those stones. Its in russian but the pictures are great. They run a needle through the stitches after they tat a base. That's too much fudge factor for me and I can see it going really wrong. I've had really good success tatting with beads and then adding extra beads by looping through the other beads. I also find that the extra beads add stiffness/structure to the motif.
By the way, I did an exchange with you a couple years ago and you sent a bronze snowflake. I just wanted to let you know that its hanging in my kitchen and its still absolutely perfect!
Thanks for the really nice responses everyone! The most time consuming part of the process is actually trying to figure out what will work and look good with the piece; sometimes I put things on and take them off, trying different things until I find what I like. Overall though the technique is a lot of fun.
What a gorgeous combination of the two techniques!
Your brooches are all gorgeous! And your tatting, PERFECT as ever.
Perfect and beautiful tatting!
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