FGP#23 Dance Floor continued

I am continuing to work the dance floor in brick stitch outlines with right angle weave filler. The brick stitching is sometimes tapered. It helps to have multiple sizes of the same or similar bead. Working down to the deadline now. The photography for the deck of cards is commencing. I will post here where the cards may be ordered and when the exhibit of all the deck pieces will be when I get the information. Joanne

FGP#18 Frame continued

Well, Back from a holiday break. We went to visit the granddaughter in Rochester, NY. I did take 2 days off before Christmas to sew a snow white dress.
But now back to the project: First, I photographed the figures on black and gray backgrounds to decide which I liked better. For all but the disco balls, I preferred the gray.

I stitched 2 rows of round #6 seed beads in black and very dark brown around the entire wire frame. I like the depth that close but not identical shades provide. I decided to up the weight of the thread to 10 lb fireline as the bead holes allowed it and I figured, the heavier the better.

After the 2 rows of round beads, I added a row of dark iridescent rectangular beads, followed by a row of bluish gray rectangular beads. I think that the rectangular beads will add rigidity to the frame and the gray will help shade the frame into the proposed gray background. As I bead around, I attach any figure that butts the frame.

I have decided to leave the upper left corner to last. This is where I planned the speakeasy door with the eye hole. I am debating leaving this feature out as I am concerned with getting the background too busy as well as adding a detail too small (the eye in the hole) to carry down to the reduced playing card size.

Another decision is what stitch in which to actually do the background. Brick stitch will be more stiff but add lines to the background. I like to surround my brick stitch figures in a background of right angle weave as there are no distracting line of beads in right angle weave. However, right angle weave is a softer stitch, it will not be as stiff a supporting structure. Right angle weave also takes longer to stitch than brick stitch. I have chosen to do the lines of the dance floor in brick stitch and the surrounding background in right angle weave. I think that the dance floor lines will add sufficient support especially if done with rectangle beads.

I am sampling some of the brick stitch lines representing the dance floor. I may or may not decide to keep these. I do like the blue and gray, but like the gold-brassy beads less. I am concerned they might draw attention too much away from the figures. I will wait and delay my decision till more is stitched.

I have decided to do the background in right angle weave. To prepare the brick stitching for right angle weave, I do a picot row. I add a bead, pick up the thread bridge between the 2 beads below and DO NOT go through the bead a second time. This allows the bead to set up with its hole perpendicular to the previous beads below in the brick stitch row. These picot beads will be incorporated into the 4 bead circles that are the basic unit of right angle weave. Joanne

FGP#16 Second Disco Ball

The second, smaller disco ball has a different orientation showing the bottom of the ball. I choose to start with a circular bead ladder at this bottom circle. After a few rounds, the smaller ball is attached to the side of the first and larger one.

Rounds of brick stitch continue with smaller beads on the bottom and larger beads on the top.

When the bottom edge is neared, a bead ladder is thrown to outline this edge, then filled in. As before, bead ladders in new areas are done in small increments. It is much easier to control the shape of a short bead ladder than a long one.

When the bottom is done, the thread is attached at the top and beadwork progresses upwards. After the smaller ball is completed, rounds of brick stitch are finished around the larger ball adjusting its shape. Joanne

I think what I like most about doing pictures in brick stitch is that the designing decisions are not done with the original collage. Decisions need to be made and adjusted continually as the bead stitching progresses. I find that once all the decisions are over and done with as in working a charted design, I lose interest. Tweaking the design, changing it, making it work is the carrot that keeps me going. Joanne

FGP#12 Charleston Couple

Since the dark areas of the woman and man blend together, I felt it best to stop working on the woman and begin the man's figure so that the blending of the heads could be done together.

To begin the male figure, I started vertical rows of beads against the side of the female body. I then threw bead ladders in black to mark the creases in the man's pants. The pants were then filled in choosing the direction of the bead rows to follow the drape of the clothing fabric.

The woman's hand was added and the man's shirt worked up to the woman's arm.

The man's legs and shoes were completed and arm and shoulder begun.

Joanne

FGP#11Female Flapper

Skirt redone. Much better!!!  Joanne

FGP#10 Female Flapper

This will be a short post. I began the flapper at the hipline of the dress and worked upwards into the bust and torso, shaping mainly by progressing from one bead brick stitch to brick stitch made up of two (or 3) stacked beads. The change is gradual--going from one regular bead to one larger bead to two small beads to one small, one regular bead to two regular beads, etc.

When I got to the top of the torso and started to add bead ladders laterally for the outstretched arms, I worried that the darks would not match the darks of her partner. Woking in color from a black and white photo has its limitations. I felt that I should stop and finish the bottom of the flapper, move on to her partner and then blend in the darks of both figures at the same time.

I started the dress skirt by throwing a vertical bead ladder down from the low waist. I had wanted to repeat the blue 0n blue stripe that I had used in the swing bodice and the disco vest. However, as I progressed on with the skirt, I felt that the striping was too static and did not reflect the swing of a flapper dress. Sooo--I cut it off and started again with a skirt matching the dress top. Again, throwing a vertical bead ladder to start. However, I went back and marked the photo with curving lines to follow and did some increasing and decreasing on the second row to avoid the straight static striped look. I am much more optimistic with this second skirt.

I often place a bead, check the piece against the photo and remove the bead, selecting another of differing color, shape or size. It is a bigger decision to remove a whole area, BUT if the final effect demands it--DO IT.

Also, never underestimate the help that drawing lines to follow on the photo provides. It really does keep you following the small changes in direction that can easily get out of hand.

Another point: If a particular area of beadwork is found to be too narrow, turn it on its side. See the up and down beads reminiscent of peyote stitch? Just peyote across these to add width.

If the piece is found to be too wide as I decided here in the waist area, cut off the last bead(s) of each row and reinforce the new edge beads with additional thread (change to a smaller needle if necessary). Here I am not worried about little pieces of thread sticking out the side as I will cover them up when I add the background. If this were to be a final edge, I would carefully burn these threads to a lump one at a time with a cigarette lighter so that they would not work out of the beadwork. Joanne

FGP#9 Female Disco Dancer

Turkey Day but I got up early. Luckily I have a husband who does the holiday dinners. So while he is preparing the turkey, I can be over in my back yard studio finishing up and posting Ms Disco.

First is to pick a place to begin. I chose the waist. Note that I am ignoring the colors of the photo and doing all of my dancers in the same color range as the first pair. Ms Disco poses an additional problem as the photo I am working from is particularly bad (I photographed UTube video clip dancers off my computer screen and then pasted different dancers together to get the pose and costume that I wanted).

In working the skirt, I exaggerated the creases in the skirt by stitching short rows to emphasize movement. When the skirt was at an appropriate place, I joined it to Mr. Disco's leg. Ms Disco's legs were done in the same manner previously describes in past posts. And off course she needs platform shoes.

When the lower body was finished, I went back to the waist and worked the torso upwards, extending bead ladders for the arms. Shading the bead colors and sizes provides roundness to the body and bust.

Hair and face were last. Due to the small size of the face area and the resolution limit of the bead size, face detail needs to be kept to a minimum. Now its time to go enjoy family and dinner. Joanne