5/13/07

One Quarter Finished


Now that #11 is done in the Basho series, I'm 1/4 of the way done and thinking it's time to figure out how to mount them when it's all finished....I've been thinking of grids of various dimensions, but also have considered a spiral...as usual, I'll let it perculate for a while and then lay them out and see if a visual solution is obvious or not.

7 comments:

Denise said...

These are so amazing! Where is the inspiration coming from? What is the material? Is it backed with something? Oh and at the risk of asking way too many questions - what size are they? I'm so thoroughly enjoying this series!
Cheers, Denise

beadbabe49 said...

hi denise!
the series is inspired by the the 17th century Japanese poet Basho and his famous haiku filled travelogue, of his trip through northern Japan.
It's called Narrow Road to the Interior (or Narrow Road to the Deep North) and has 44 "parts" or stations.
My pieces are all 4x4 inches, cotton fabric fused to timtex to give them stability.
I'll be doing the same prep for the bead journal pieces, but I've decided to make them 4x6" or roughly, postcard size.

Denise said...

Hey!
Thanks for the info. I'm going to look that up! I'll be interested to see how you bind it together. If I can think of anything, I'll let you know my ideas - they may help.
Have you ever done bead embroidery with batting as the medium under the material? Like a quilt sandwhich? I like it because it's flexible and I can bury the threads in the batting and have a clean back.
I'm using timtex/pellon right now for a project that I am working on and I find it great for the weight. When I do bead embroidery on it I have to go in and out with the needle instead of staying on the top layer and making little stitches. Try the quilt batting sometime!!

beadbabe49 said...

I haven't done it with batting...does it stiffen the fabric?
When I do bead embroidery, I couch the threads between every 2 beads, so I couldn't do it all from the top, anyway...but it's a nice thought if you back stitch when you're embroidering.

Denise said...

Ahhhh! Gotcha - you couch! I do back stitch primarily, which is what I started with when I started on dolls. I also do boucle and stacked stitch and also some embroidery stitches modified for beads.
How many beads are on the thread on average if you are couching? Do you couch with two needles or one?
The fabric isn't stiff, but it is supported by the batting and all the threads get buried. My hand is done with batting for instance but when I make a postcard, I use pellon. I hadn't thought of couching it though.
Do you do peyote around the cabs? Have you ever netted them?
Cheers, Denise

beadbabe49 said...

I put from 4 to 6 beads on the string, depending on how curved the line is I'm making...I only use one needle....I do peyote around cabs and have netted them and done RAW to hold them.

Jackie (Tillie's Daughter) said...

I can't believe you are 1/4 of the way finished already. At this rate, you will be ahead of schedule. These are just great and it will be exciting to see how you "finish them".