Tuesday 21 May 2013

Bl**dy beads... but a great hangy piece!

The latest guest designer at Paperartsy, is the talented  but sadistic Carol Quance who produced a beautiful hanging piece with (this is where the sadistic bit comes in) a (on hers anyhow) beautiful beaded fringe.

Now, I don't have very nimble fingers, I have trouble threading a needle with cotton and I don't "do" beading projects (and after tonight, I won't be taking it up any time soon either ...) but I have done one.

 I mixed some Chocolate Pudding and Blood Orange Fresco paints together and painted the whole hangy piece.
I used the harlequin stencil and applied some grunge paste down the length, then once it was dry,painted it with Blood Orange paint, before brushing over some Spanish Topaz and Indigo Treasure Gold, and edged the piece with some Little Black Dress paint, also catching some of the high spots of the GP, using cut and dry foam.

Like my friend Sam I stamped a Paperartsy script stamp randomly on the board, as my main centrepiece isn't long enough to fill the space.
I stamped the owl on crackly tissue (I have a little left!!) and painted it using brown and the blood orange to match the base.

The bead fringe was my biggest headache. (as the twitters amongst you are aware!) I can't do fiddly faffy stuff very well and I was going to use something other than beads for the fringe, but it didn't look right....

so I took some scissors to.....








...a bead necklace that I was given some years ago when these dangly things were all the rage - don't think I've worn it.   Each strand seems to be fixed at the top so I cut one off, thinking I had hold of the thread.... sadly there were two threads through the beads and so much swearing ensured as I picked them up from the bedroom carpet...
I expect like pine needles after Christmas, I'll be finding them for months... (ignore the pink dylusions spray on the rug....)

I am hopeless at knots but when I realised I couldn't re-thread the beads (they are TINY!!|) I decided to cut several lengths (one at a time) and knot the ends as best I could...

I painted a strip of white satin ribbon with a mix of blood orange and chocolate pudding paints, so it matches the base, and fixed some red-line double sided tape to the ribbon... stuck the top of each piece of beading to the tape and then folded the ribbon over to stick it in two.
After I finished this desperately fiddly operation I did think I could probably just have folded the one strand to the tape, concertinering it up as I went... ah, hindsight!! I stuck the fringe to the base with red-line tape.

Probably a good job you can't see it too well in this picture!!

Oh well, I managed it.... hope the next project isn't this fiddly, Carol - though I did enjoy most of it.
I did leave the string handle as it came, rather than replace it with beads or anything else, for that matter!

17 comments:

Gabrielle said...

Great story and fab project! x

sam21ski said...

Hehehehehe Helen, great job and well done for persevering with the beads.

I was fortunate enough to of had a strip of ribbon with beads already attached, so it made it much easier for me.

Love the choc pudding and orange blood mix, looks great.

Sam xxx

craftytrog said...

It looks fab Helen! Well done for persevering with the beads! x

Unknown said...

Hi Helen, I can just see you fiddling about with your beads LOL!! But the results are brilliant, you did a great job. Hugs Frea

Julie Lee said...

Oh, poor you with the tale of woe about the beads! I too had some beads already threaded in a trim also I didn't do the fringe thing like Carol - it looked terrific, but my bead and needle threading is abysmal!!! Lovely rich colour combo on yours and I love the owl! x

Carol Q said...

OMG Helen - I'm sorry I put you through all that with the beads lol. Worth persevering as you've ended up with a great result!

PaperArtsy said...

Hahaha. Falling about laughing at your bead dramas. Living the blood orange/choccie pud combo. Never tried that but looks ace!! 10/10 for perseverance!!

Lin said...

Lol Helen that was the funniest blog post I've read for ages and for all the flaffing around it came out great so well done!! I will have to be up at the crack of dawn to catch up with you all!!

Darcy Marshall said...

ohh noes what a nightmare Helen, but you did a fantastic job anyway. Glad you persevered, it was worth it.

Ohhh Snap said...

Beautiful hangy thing : D. And well done on figuring out the fringe! Another (sort of short cut) way to do it is use wire. Easier than threading a needle and you can make a loop at both ends, or at one end if you use head-pins.

craftimamma said...

Oh that story has lightened my day Helen but well done you for not giving up! The end result is great and I love the touches of black on the grunge paste.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

Sue said...

It does look fab Helen, so well worth the faffing arround, and it's definitely made me LOL at the thought of you picking up the b**** beeds :-) x

Sue said...

and beads to :-)

Words and Pictures said...

I think it's a fab hanging, and it was well worth persevering to get that little bit of extra bling along the bottom!
Alison x

Anonymous said...

Well done on persevering with the trim, the finished piece is gorgeous. I still have no clue how I can do mine....

Trish said...

Hahaha, I loved that story! Well, it worked out beautifully, and the fringe finishes it off perfectly.

Lucy Edmondson said...

Great project! That is a first, having a Guest Designer called a Sadist, lol!

Lucy x