Bead Embroidery Motifs

As you know, I love beads and apart from beadweaving, I do some bead embroidery from time to time. When I first started sewing with beads, I think in 2007, I did it without any clear technique. In Singlish, we call this way of doing things "anyhow whack". Back then I tried to look for a beginner's guide to bead embroidery and I couldn't find any in the bookstores or the library. Nowadays there are a few to choose from and Bead Embroidery Motifs (2014) by Genevieve Crabe is one such book.

If this book were available in 2007, I would have been very happy and possibly never got so involved in bag-making.

Unfortunately it's 2015 and I already know how to bead. So this book is too late for me.

Here are a few sample motifs from the book.

These 2 are easy peasy.

This one requires more time and patience. It's a skill builder.

There are 100 motifs in total if you have the patience to sew them all. The look and feel of the motifs are somewhat artsy and not kawaii. Might not be everyone's cup of tea.

There are a few motifs which include cabochons! Cabochons excite me. In case you're wondering, the cabochon is glued down. The beads do not secure the cabochon.

The instructions for the bead stitching is done via diagrams. Some people don't like that huh! If you're someone who cannot visualise instructions based on diagrams, you're better off watching youtube videos which are free. But honestly, there aren't that many ways to sew beads to a foundation. This book pretty much covers the basics. The portion on cabochons may be a little hard to understand. The author even suggests watching online videos although she doesn't include any links. There are books dedicated to cabochons so I am not really surprised the author doesn't go in-depth. Anyway, if you are a beginner in bead embroidery, stay away from cabochons until you have the basics down.