Teaching Bead Embroidery ~ More from Baltimore Students!

Don't you just love it when we help each other to have a web presence?! The above detail and full picture below were taken by Susan Elliott (Plays With Needles)... so we have her to thank for being able to see this lovely work by Barbara Meger!

This is a continuation of my previous post with a few thoughts about teaching bead embroidery along with some more of the beautiful work by students from my class in Baltimore. I think it might be fun to try to list 7 things I love most about teaching bead embroidery... so here goes...

1. Watching students get excited as they experience the connections between improvisational beading and their own creativity.
2. Helping those who are blocked to take baby steps toward more confidence.
3. Getting questions from students that help me to cover techniques and tips I might otherwise have forgotten to mention.
4. Being stimulated by student work, by the endless ways they make the techniques, stitches, colors and beads their own.
5. The challenge of providing a lot of new material in a short time in a clear way that most students can follow without getting behind or feeling frustrated.
6. Seeing little light bulbs go off as students get it.
7. Receiving pictures of finished work, especially projects that were started in class.

Yes, receiving pictures is a huge reward for teaching... better than the pay! My students in Baltimore have really taken to bead embroidery and now I have pictures from two more of them to show you.

As I mentioned in my previous post on this topic (here), several students chose to use the pattern for a little pouch that I call Emese's Bag. This is my original version of it, shown closed.


The top flap opens to reveal a little pocket inside for keeping treasures safe.


Here is Bobbi Pohl's version, started in class last fall.


Here is the pocket inside.


Here is how it looks on the beaded side when it is opened.


Bobbi took to bead embroidery in a big way! Here is her next project, an evening bag. Isn't it scrumptious?!


Here's a detail of the beaded flap (all pictures are click-to-enlarge)!



And you saw the teaser at the top of this post? Well here's the finished square of bead embroidery (above) by Barbara Meger. One thing that thrills me about this piece is that Barbara used it to practice and try out all of the techniques I covered in class, including couched-down twisted fringe, ruffles, beaded bezel, fans, surface fringes, bugle bead pathways and all the basic stitches!


One more for your viewing pleasure! This is Blue Crab by Carolyn Everley. This is her second piece since the class. I'm guessing there's a lot more texture than is evident in the picture... but you can see the crab shell in the lower left corner, his/her blue arms with coral pinchers extending into exotic, undersea plantlife and his/her beady black eyes.

Way to go Bobbi, Barbara and Carolyn! I'm so proud of your accomplishments!