Bead Embroidery Is My Thing

In my last post, I said I thought my bead embroidered necklace would take a couple of weeks to complete. I forgot to factor in my obsession with fun projects when I made that estimate! I finished the necklace at 1 AM this morning and I'm extremely happy with it.

My beautiful friend, Cissa, as model

When I left off at the end of Tuesday's post, I had just decided to embroider the entire piece, not just a centerpiece. I finished that part Wednesday night and went to bed knowing that I'd be doing the finishing work the next day. I hardly slept - I was that excited.

First thing: glue on the backing fabric to cover up all the threads.

This was dry in about 20 minutes - not long at all.

The next order of business was to brick stitch beads one at a time around the edge to attach the edges together. It also makes a nicely finished edge.

As the final step, I encased another muscovite oval bead and attached two hooks to the necklace. One hook is permanently closed, while the other acts as the clasp.

A view of the underside - all the messy threads are nicely hidden.

I love the idea of a focal point at the back. I mean, you want people to be sorry when you leave a room, but you want them to enjoy the view as you go, right?

The entire project, start-to-finish took a whopping 31 hours. And I loved every minute of it!

Click here for purchasing info for this very special necklace...