Trying to work small, get a few little projects made up that are small and yet artistically strong. Not sure I’m there, but here are a couple I’m working on.
This is the red leaf shape I found in a piece of my dyed fabric. I’m doing a simple outline of the leaf and veins with small red beads. I’ve gone from saying that I would never, ever bead with beads this small, to actually preferring this size. They truly do look better on the small pieces I’m trying to make now.
I had heard that if you have a pile of beads you can just plunge your needle into the stack and it will find enough beads facing the right direction and load itself. I was skeptical, so of course I tried it with the pile of red beads and it worked!!! Look how many beads I got with only two dives…
I’m anxious to get the outlining done on this one because I’m not sure that will be enough to make the leaf stand out. I may have to try out some other newly learned technique on it, too–no, no, I’m sure it will really need it. It’s not just to do something new. Really!
And this little piece started out as a 5×5″ square (I showed it to you before), but now it wants to become part of a collage and grow. I really want to stay small, but 12″ or 16″, that’s not really big, is it??? More of the black around the ‘map’ looking pieces, but no beads in those sections…should be fine, right? As always, I’d love your opinions!
Bigger, bigger, bigger!
Love the 2nd one! Very delicate but nice design work!
Have added a couple more pieces of fabric to finish the design and now quilting…should be finished later this week, depending on other stuff going on this week.
I love the detail that the beads bring out. They bring such great color and shape to the fabric. Great post
I’m finding that I need the beads for those details on the hand dyes but I have yet to experiment with pieced little works. Looking forward to lots more experimenting!
I really like what you are doing with the “map”piece. The background is perfect with its street look. It should be the right size as it is.
I’m still fussing with that, but getting very close to calling the layout finished.I want the only beading to be in the center, so the background and the quilting have to discreet…and that’s a weakness of mine!
Do you want to consider framing the other two pieces in a lighter color or shading so the center is the part to really stand out?
Hadn’t thought about that because I’m so concentrated on keeping things small, but artistically that may be the way I need to finish them!
Love the look that is emerging. The beauty of working small is that you become more focused. I find working big more stressful.
I agree–lots more focus, because every tiny bit matters so much more. That’s also why it’s so much harder!!!! But I’m loving it. It’s helping me to think more in design terms and less in just color chunks.