Showing posts with label penny berens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label penny berens. Show all posts

Sunday, December 11, 2011

worms fini!

Never give up!!! See what happened when I was challenged to add beads to a sample I made in a Penny Berens class. After seeing my Bead Journal pieces, Penny tempted me to add some beads, so add them I did!!! What do you think?

Look here if you want to see where I started. Do you think I became a little obsessed?

The edges aren't finished yet. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, but the size is just about right for a book cover. Or, perhaps the focal in a larger piece.....only time will tell.......Any other ideas?

Presenting the finished worms!



Detail shots....The spiral looked out of place after I finished backstitching on the orange beads. I wasn't happy until I added a layer of turquoise fringe. Layer, layer, layer.....it doesn't matter if you're using paint, fabric or beads.....more layers = more depth!! Of course, it's hard to know when to stop, but I think I stopped just in time. LOL!







Techniques used:

Hand embroidery - french knots, straight stitch, back stitch, cross stitch and seed stitch

Bead embroidery - back stitch, stacked stitch, fringe and ruffle.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

what the heck does confetti have to do with procrastination?

I was avoiding a project that's due mid-November (actually one of two projects due at the same time). I wasn't inspired and didn't really feel like working on anything serious, so I decided to play with a technique Penny B taught me several years ago. You start with a base fabric and then lay on many different squares of fabric (I used my procion mx hand dyed cottons in 2" squares). I cheated and fused them, but then stitched all the edges with a stitched out zigzag. When that was finished, I sliced down the middle of each square with a rotary cutter, rearranged the strips, then butted them together and stitched again........



......repeat as desired......I think that I sliced and diced around four times before I was happy with my confetti............




I have an idea for this, but won't post until I'm happy with the results. Of course, it won't work for either of the official projects, but at least I'm playing my way out of the doldrums....