Everything done except beading the borders
Saturday, 18 September 2010 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lobsterdesigns
In other news, you know that strange thing you see in some Egyptian paintings hanging down from goddesses' armpits, or occasionally behind their backs? I've finally found out what it is: a peculiar counterweight to a heavy bead necklace. Apparently the object in question was, amongst other things, associated with potency and fertility. Yep, I could see how people could make those associations.
ETA: Halfway decent photos are finally here! I'll try to take even better ones outdoors before I send it off. Click on the thumbnails for huge images.
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no subject
Date: 18 Sep 2010 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 18 Sep 2010 11:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 18 Sep 2010 11:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 Sep 2010 08:50 am (UTC)I'm quite pleased with the way the dress came out. The beads are size 15s again, little translucent pale blue beads like chips of ice, and it's just enough to make the dress shimmery without standing out. This is definitely a Goddess With Bling.
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Date: 19 Sep 2010 11:56 am (UTC)JGVsvPcVhPfb
Date: 5 Jan 2012 11:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 18 Sep 2010 11:31 pm (UTC)Simply, beautiful.
It draws me back again and again to look at it, to *experience* it, even though it's a cyber experience, to sort of drink it in and to be lost in it. It's kind of a meditative experience, you know?
Simply beautiful. Beautiful.
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Date: 18 Sep 2010 11:33 pm (UTC)The whole thing would not have been out of place stylistically at the Great Temple in Karnak, I feel. :-)
What are you going to do with it when it's completed?
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Date: 19 Sep 2010 09:01 am (UTC)The quilt will be going off to Grosvenor Shows for the competition in a few weeks. They take most of the quilts on tour, and while it may or may not be good enough to win a prize it's certainly good enough for the tour, so it will be travelling to quilt shows all over the UK for a year. Then I will try to sell it, which will be easier after all those shows.
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Date: 20 Sep 2010 12:00 am (UTC)If it doesn't win something, the judges are on crack.
Help help help!
Date: 19 Sep 2010 09:21 am (UTC)The plan is to put little pairs of dark green bugle beads in V shapes (alternating which way up they go) every 1 1/2" along the two plain teal lattice border strips, so that the borders get a bit more weight without taking over. Each of those flowers in the border is 3" wide, to give you an idea of scale, and the teal lattice border strips are 1" high. The beads are matte, so they wouldn't catch the light like the shiny ones elsewhere, and I might possibly put little size 15 beads at the end of the bugle beads to neaten them off, depending on how they look. The beading is rather top-heavy at the moment, I'm not sure whether it needs more beading in the borders to balance this all out or whether I should leave it as it is. Any thoughts?
I'll try to do some proper close-ups at some point, I know the photos are a bit crappy. I think I need to reset the dpi or whatever it is, my photos used to come out far larger and more detailed, though I have absolutely no idea how to do this. Thankfully the manual is available online, though right now I can't find the right bit in it. Actually, I really need to learn how to use my camera properly!
Re: Help help help!
Date: 19 Sep 2010 10:57 am (UTC)Opinions on the border beading dilemma?
Re: Help help help!
Date: 19 Sep 2010 11:59 am (UTC)So, you are not entering this in the Hoffman challenge?
Re: Help help help!
Date: 19 Sep 2010 12:08 pm (UTC)Re: Help help help!
Date: 19 Sep 2010 12:15 pm (UTC)Re: Help help help!
Date: 19 Sep 2010 12:57 pm (UTC)I think I should definitely keep anything shiny out of the borders, but I'm still not sure whether some very subtle matte beads would work. I'll lay them out once they turn up and see how the look. I tried them out with some green beads, which were pretty good but the colour was a smidgen too olivey and they were shiny. Shiny dark blue twisted bugles in 6mm were too dark, but oddly some 4mm straight shiny beads of the sort they tend to call black/rainbow weren't bad at all. So I think matte dark green with AB coating is a good compromise. The little V shapes fit nicely, it's yet another typical Egyptian pattern, though hopefully no one will notice that I cut the lattice fabric for the borders badly and I wouldn't be able to get the beads on exactly the same bit of fabric pattern every time. Here's a photo I took with a few beads scattered in roughly the right positions. The little black/rainbow beads are at the bottom side of the border, and the green 6mm beads are at the top side.
Re: Help help help!
Date: 19 Sep 2010 01:29 pm (UTC)I'm torn about the beads on the borders because I have recently fallen completely in love with beading, but there is a part of me that thinks that it honors Isis more to have the beads be around her and only her, if that makes sense.
I don't think it would look worse to put more beads on though.
Re: Help help help!
Date: 19 Sep 2010 01:33 pm (UTC)Re: Help help help!
Date: 19 Sep 2010 02:07 pm (UTC)beading and q-snap frames
Date: 19 Sep 2010 05:44 pm (UTC)Re: beading and q-snap frames
Date: 19 Sep 2010 06:25 pm (UTC)Re: beading and q-snap frames
Date: 19 Sep 2010 07:19 pm (UTC)My aunt who paints says that you cannot judge from photos, I need to lay the quilt out on the floor and decide. So I'll see how I feel when the beads show up on Tuesday or so. I find photos useful because quite apart from the beading, you always focus on small bits when quilting too, and it's handy for gaining perspective. Still, at least I know it looks good now, and I'm probably choosing between two good options, it's not as if I'm likely to spoil the quilt.
Re: beading and q-snap frames
Date: 19 Sep 2010 11:17 pm (UTC)I agree that photos can be helpful to shrink the piece down to give you perspective, but that it's hard to make fine judgement calls from a photo.
I prefer to have the quilt on the wall vertically or have someone hold it up if that's not an option. For some reason, laying the quilt horizontally isn't quite as good. Have I mentioned I love my design wall?:)
And no worries about the previous reply. I realize this is your opinion and I didn't take it personally. I may be totally wrong that this will work for me. If it doesn't work for me, I can always get the next size up.
Re: beading and q-snap frames
Date: 20 Sep 2010 08:39 am (UTC)I bead with the Q-snap sitting flat on the table, pretty much, so I don't need as much reach as when I'm quilting. One nice thing about Q-snaps is that if reach is a problem, you can set them up to be long and narrow. Their 11x17 was originally designed for borders, but I find it's ideal because you can get a reasonable amount of quilt in there and the shorter sides means that I can always reach somehow. That one is a generally useful size, I think. There are so many different ways of quilting, I'm sure that there must be as many ways of beading, but beading quilts just isn't discussed as much yet. Do let me know what you end up doing, I'm very curious about all the options here.
One thing I have found is that while Q-snaps are less prone to leaving crease marks, they still do it to some extent. I try to finish a frame's beading that day so that I don't leave the frame on overnight, and by the time I finished the Isis quilt I'd cut little strips of fabric to put between the quilt and the clamps. It still got a bit creased, but it helped somewhat, and it definitely helped protect that sodding delicate gold metallic embroidery.
no subject
Date: 21 Sep 2010 01:11 pm (UTC)(I have had a ghastly morning which has included trying to sort out the washing machine's having broken down YET AGAIN and the horrifying discovery that a company I didn't know about has been taking money for boiler insurance from me for years, so beading is nice and therapeutic.)
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Date: 15 Oct 2010 08:00 pm (UTC)