I've been wanting to try my hand at textile bead making for quite a while, so yesterday I decided to just do it, and continued with some more this morning. Those of you who know me, know I really don't like anything to do with glue, so it's not easy for me to get into this sort of thing. However, I have to say, I had some fun, and I've made a few little textured pieces that might be useful for some mixed media projects. I took the easy way out and made some paper ones first. These are made from heavy brown paper [almost card stiffness], which I coloured with crayons, painted with metallic folk art paint, with glitter added after rolling. They have been sealed with ModPodge. I think a much brighter result might be achieved by using lighter coloured paper, where the colour will be stronger.
The next experiment was using Kunin felt, stitched with metallic thread. It was then rolled onto a satay stick with some purple silk dupion. I like the broken/crackled surface, which was also painted with glue prior to rolling in glitter. These are really cool.
Okay, so now I'd found my sea legs, I was off!!! The next thing to try was Tyvek. I painted several strips with iridescent folk art paints, and Lumiere metallics. This batch was done using Lumiere Pewter on the Tyvek, and rolled with black wool felt, later rubbed with Sapphire Treasure Gold, and the obligatory glitter to finish off.
The last batch I'm quite pleased with because I managed to be much more judicious with the heat gun. These little gems are painted Tyvek, rolled with purple silk, distressed a little, and rubbed with Rose Gold Treasure Gold, but I stayed away from the glitter this time!!!! They are a much tighter and neater roll for my liking.
I want to try more with Kunin felt stitched prior to rolling with contrasting coloured silk. I like the look of those, the way the stitching is left after the felt is pulled away by the heat.
