bwh Design Notes

I’ve been a member of SABOS - The San Antonio Bead & Ornament Society - for over 5 years. At our November meeting, we were honored to have Larkin Jean Van Horn as our guest speaker. Larkin is extremely talented and very personable and down to earth. Larkin works with beads on fabric, something I’d never before been interested in. But, Larkin showed us more about the possibilities for beads on fabric. In fact, I was so inspired that I bought her book Beading On Fabric. It’s written just like she talks - which is good. It’s as if she were in the room talking with you. And it is full of information.

I’ve played w/ beads for years. And I’ve also, occasionally played w/ embroidery. But this is something different. And fun. And before I knew it, I accidentally had my first project. Well, not accidentally, but definitely sooner than I originally planned.

My first mission was to adorn a necktie w/ beads. This was for a lady at a restaurant we frequent. All the waitstaff is required to wear black shirts and ties. So I decided to add a little pizazz to her wardrobe. Since this was my first beading on fabric project, I decided that I just might benefit from a bit of practice.

My DH suggested that I put the letter “L” on the tie as that is the first letter of her first name. While practicing, I discovered this might not have been the best first project, but I pursued it anyway. Below is a picture of the practice “L”.

Not too bad, I thought. You just have to ignore all my chalk marks. Plus there’s those stray beads above the “L” where I was trying other techniques. It was, after all, practice.

I had 2 ties planned. One was a Christmas tie, being that they were delivered on December 22nd. I decided to work on that one next, just to get warmed up. (OK, and to make the mistakes on the tie that wasn’t likely to get worn quite as often.) For this one, I just decided to add some embellishments to an existing Christmas tie. Here’s a picture up close:

And a picture of the entire area:

Finally, I was ready to do the tie with the initial. I also added a circle of Sterling Silver Bali beads with Swarovski crystals on top - just for fun. Here’s a close up:

And another view:

The ties were delivered when we went to dinner Saturday night and were well received. “L” whipped off the tie she had been wearing and asked which one she should wear. I suggested the Christmas tie since it had such a short season in which it could be worn. I took great delight in seeing her show it off to other customers that night.

(On a side note, the “L” on that tie had, to me, a disturbing resemblance to the “L” on the sweater of Laverne on that old show “Laverne & Shirley”. I think that, blessedly, “L” may actually be too young to have ever seen that show.)

I already have more beading on fabric projects planned! Any suggestions?

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