Beadembroidered Bag – Work in Progress I

Some of you may have heard me say this before… one of the reasons I was attracted to beadweaving in the first place is because I wanted to make bags and use beadwoven components on the bags…. we are now talking about 5 years ago, and apart from one previous attempt at making one, I’ve kind of put it on my “have-to-get-to-it-one-day” list… and I can promise you one thing… that list is really, REALLY long!!! :-)

About 3 weeks ago I order a beadembroidery bag kit from Ann Benson at BeadsEast.com… This is the first time I ordered a kit! and the reason I ordered it was because I have no idea how to construct a beadembroidered bag… and as I’m unable to attend any of Sherry Serafini’s classes, which is something I would LOVE to do, due to the fact that I don’t live in the US…. :-( I thought getting this kit would hopefully start me off!!! Sadly, the kit still hasn’t arrived and I’ve become extremely impatient so I decided to throw caution to the wind and attempt to make one… No idea how I’m going to put it all together… but I’ll improvise! :-)

Here are some photos (please excuse the quality, they were taken on my new mobile phone) of my work in progress, I had no clear idea of the design, only of the shape of the bag and the fact that I wanted to use some of my Lisa Peters Art’s cabs that I bought in the last couple of years.

Some of the mess as I’m trying to decide on a colour scheme and design (ceramic cabs from Lisa Peters Art):

Paper template of shape + Lisa Peters Art button:

More mess, more beads as I’m slowly picking out complimentary bead for the LPA cabs:

Finally started and glued main cabs (more may be added later, I’m not sure) – There are some German glass cabs, a couple of Swarovski navettes, one LPA heart shaped cab and one LPA button all glued on my favourite beadbacking purchased from Nicole Campanella of Beadwright:

and finally some beading:

I’ve added some textured fabric for contrast:

 

This is as far as I got… it’s a slow process…. I think mainly due to not having a clear idea of what I want to do with it and how to finish it… hopefully I won’t give up!!! Something I’ve been known to do when I’m not 100% happy with something! :-)

I’m hoping that my kit arrives soon, maybe that will inspire me and take away some of this irrational fear… coincidentally, this morning I was browsing Facebook and found the most gorgeous beadembroidered bag… I LOVE it, so I’m going to share it with you!

Bead Embroidered Tapestry Pouch by Susan A. Pierle of beadedartjewelry

I really love this bag, and love all of Susan’s beautiful jewellery… I love her designs, her style and her use of colour… if you are not already familiar with her work, go and check her out:  http://www.beadedartjewelry.blogspot.com/

I don’t think my first beadembroidered bag will come anywhere near as close to this beautiful piece… but it’s my prototype for future bags…  hopefully they will get better! :-) I will post more work in progress as I move along with it… so stay tuned!