Bead Tutorial: Looped Stacks

It's bead overload month - and I hope to bring you several tutorials that will augment the techniques shown in my DVD Bead It Like You Mean It. Just for fun. And because I love YOU.

I love hand work. Not because I have endless amounts of patience and love peaceful hours of meditative stitchery. Sounds blissful but it's no part of the reality of mothering five children.

I love to bead because it fits into the five minutes I'm sitting in the carpool line. A stitch stays put when you need to jump up and change a diaper. A tin of beads and a bit of cloth can travel with you during endless hours at music lessons and soccer practice.

Did you see those lovely little loopy yellow beads in the first picture? They are just toooo much fun to play with and I though I'd share how to create them with you.

I've started with a fun fabric flower, cut, fused, and stitched to a piece of craft-fuse.

I decided to outline the petals in a contrasting color of beads. Itty bitty size 15 rocailles in this case. I'm using a size 11 applique needle and nymo beading thread. I find that beading needles aren't quite strong enough to sew through more than one layer of fabric without bending in half.

Knot your thread well and bring your needle up right where you want your loopy stack to sit. Give your thread a tug to make sure it's not going to pop through the fabric.

Slide one bead down the thread. I'm using a green size 6 seed bead.

Load your needle with size 11 seeds, I've used ten of them. Take your needle back down through the hole of the base bead to the back of the fabric then pull it tight. Repeat the process to create as many looped stacks as you wish, knotting your thread tightly into the back every few stacks.

You can have lots of fun varying the length of the loops, the sizes of the beads, or even making each looped stack into a beaded fringe. (Tutorial here)

More beading techniques can be found on my DVD workshop 

Bead It Like You Mean It. Leave me comment and let me know what you think.

Artist Spotlight: Susan Sorrell

Today a fellow Sketchbook Challenge artist, and a fellow Carolinian, Susan Sorrell, will review "Bead It Like You Mean It" on her blog. Get to know her just a bit here, then go there and leave a comment on her blog for a chance to win the DVD!

 Susan Sorrell has always had a “wild imagination” growing up. Traveling all over the world with her father’s job, she has had to entertain herself with all kinds of arts and crafts. She didn’t become serious about art, until she made it her major at Winthrop University. Earning a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Design, Susan worked for a short time as a graphic artist, and then decided to get her Masters in Education at Converse College, to teach art. 

Funky Fungus

beaded, painted/printed fabric, hand embroidery, mixed media

Being around children was a great way to get her creative juices flowing, so she quit after 12 years and became a full time artist. Susan calls herself a “mixed media” artist, since she likes to dabble in a lot of different medias. She has been working with textiles since 1998 and hasn’t tired of it yet. 

 Combining painting, sewing, beading and embellishing on fabric has opened new avenues to express her self.  Her pieces are whimsical, colorful and have a personal theme. Susan likes to draw her inspirations from her life and what is happening in the world. 

Her recent series of work, “Southern Fried Fiber” is inspired by her “Southern” roots. Susan lives in Greenville, South Carolina and has a studio, Little House Art Studios, located in Taylors, SC.  To view more of Susan Sorrell work visit her website www.creativechick.com 

Remember to leave a comment on Susan's blog for a chance to win Bead It Like You Mean It

Artist Spotlight: Larkin Van Horn

Today is the first day of a month long blog-hop full of reviews and giveaways for my new DVD workshop

BEAD IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT

(really - it's just a big party with everyone invited!)

.

How Green Was My Valley
7 1/4 x 15 3/4

Larkin Van Horn, one of the nicest people I know and an artist whom I have admired for a very long time, kicks off the event. We both love art quilting, we both bead, we both teach, and we both have wonderful and unique "L" names. That means that every once in a while we get an email meant for the other. I can't think of another person I'd rather be mixed up with. Here's a little introduction:

Larkin Van Horn is a mixed-media textile artist working in the areas of art quilts, beadwork, wearable art, and liturgical art.

In her own words:

"Textiles and mixed media, as art for the wall and three-dimensional structures, form the basis of my work. I draw my inspiration from a variety of sources: my own imagination and strong sense of drama, the colorists and abstract expressionists of the past, and the wild variety of the natural world. At times, my work is a response to the grey Pacific Northwest winters; at other times it reflects the natural energy of spring and summer.

A central feature of my work is texture, both visual and literal. Whether I am exploring the organic features of my island home — the waves and tide lines, wind-bent trees, strata and fissures in the rocks on the seashore — or the inner landscape of emotions, spirit and self, I want my work to have as much interest for the fingertips as for the eye - hence, the decision to work with fabric, fiber, beads, and found objects. Finding myself drawn to the alchemy and serendipity of dyeing and painting my own fabrics and yarns to create a vibrant “paint box” of materials, seems an appropriate approach to the abstract imagery of the work.

Although my inspiration is drawn from the great outdoors, the work is created on a more intimate scale. Most of my pieces are appropriate for private spaces, small nooks, and niches. "

Larkin is the author of the book "Beading on Fabric" - my very favorite instructional book in this category. (You can buy it from her here.)

Now, head on over to her blog,

read what she has to say about it,

and follow the her instructions in order to win a copy of

Bead It Like You Mean It 

Announcing BEAD IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT

I've been working on something of an adventure this past year. I think for most people it would have taken a month or two - but as with everything ART related in my life it had to fit into the little nooks and crannies of time left to the mother of five busy and extremely talented children. (Biased? Why yes I am.)

Announcing my new DVD workshop 

BEAD IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT


In this workshop I will teach you the basic techniques for embellishing fabric with beads including
sewing one bead on at a time
sewing beads in a solid line
curving, joining, or splitting a line of beads
sewing on chunky beads
making funky stacks
creating a beaded bezel to hold a cabochon
adding bead to the top of a finished quilt with no knots or mess on the back!

To celebrate the launch of this new DVD a number of my very favorite artists are posting reviews on their blogs over the next month. Please stop by each one and see what they have to say.

Sep 15  Larkin Van Horn http://blog.larkinart.com/

Sept 16 Susan Sorell http://www.creativechick.com/blog/ 

Sept 19 Kelli Nina Perkins http://ephemeralalchemy.blogspot.com/ 

Sept 21  Sharon Chapman http://wildflowerhouse.blogspot.com/ 

Sept 23 Leslie Jennison http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/ 

Sept 26 Carla Sonheim http://carlasonheim.wordpress.com/ 

Sept 28 Gloria Hansen http://www.gloriahansen.com/weblog/ 

Sept 30 Laura Wasilowski http://artfabrik.blogspot.com/ 

Oct 3  Carol Sloan http://carolbsloan.blogspot.com/ 

Oct 5 Sue Bleiweiss http://www.suebleiweiss.com/blog/ 

Oct 7  Jill Berry http://jillberrydesign.com/blog/ 

Oct 10 Jane LaFazio http://janeville.blogspot.com/ 

Oct 12 Tracie Lynn Huskamp http://thereddoor-studio.blogspot.com/

And if you simply can't wait - you can buy it here.

For Your Inspiration: Asheville, NC

Creativity Coach, Whitney Ferre 

is giving away a copy of

Art + Quilt: Design principles and creativity exercises 

on her blog today

Head on over and leave a comment for a chance to win

You can read about her in this recent interview with her

For Your Inspiration: A Rainy Day at the Beach