This is a grouping of French wire beaded flowers, for more examples see Beautiful Beaded Blooms. More ideas on beading and beadwork can be found in my book Beaded Embroidery Stitching from C&T Publishing.
Happy Stitching, enjoy~ Christen!
French beaded flowers found their beginnings from European peasant folk art. Beaded flowers were also popular in Italy, where many of the beads were made. Eventually beaded flowers found their way to England, and were very popular in the Victorian era. Throughout history this technique has been popular for wreaths, garlands or used in vases to adorn the home.
Shown here is the nasturtium (orange), jasmine (yellow), geranium (pink), Indian paint brush (red), various leaves and plumage.
This small wreath is made with the violet (purple), lupine (periwinkle) and a small beaded flower (light blue), with pressed glass leaves.
This is an antique porcelain vase that belonged to my husbands grandmother. I filled it with geraniums (pink), tulips (peach), lilies (lavender), bluebells (light blue), fern, various leaves and pressed glass leaves.
Enchanted Butterflies
Friday’s Favorites is continuing this month with Mother of pearl. This week I want to show you jewelry that I have made with MOP buttons, charms and beads.
Enchanted Butterflies is an adaptation of my “Entwined Treasures” pattern. The base is created by entwining and stitching silk cords, into a base. This base is then embellished with buttons and charms, and the beads are attached with the peyote stitch.
Mother of Pearl Button Bracelets
Button bracelets have been around for many decades. You may have one of those cuff bracelets that your mom made with an elastic crochet or stretchy gimp base that is encrusted with vintage buttons and beads.
These two bracelets here are a take-off on those original bracelets.
I chose to use a ribbon for the base (because I don’t like the elastic), using a button for the closure. The top bracelet, which is a sample of my “Klimpt Kollage Kuff” pattern, is encrusted with buttons, while the buttons are stitched in a design on the bottom bracelet.
Hopscotch
The neck-piece here is made from the tie that my dad wore at his wedding. The buttons are vintage carved Mother of pearl with celluloid discs.
The pin base is a wide ribbon, encrusted with Mother of pearl buttons and buckles, celluloid buttons, and roses that I made from gimp and vintage zippers.
Pearl's Delight
This necklace incorporates small mother of pearl buttons with beads, strung on #10 Soft Flex.. The beads are amethyst, fresh water pearls, mother of pearl and seed beads. This necklace and the bracelets below were created to wear with “Pearl’s Delight” jacket ensemble, that is covered in vintage lace and vintage Mother of pearl buttons.
Mother of Pearl Bracelets
These bracelets are all made from vintage Mother of pearl buttons. The top and bottom bracelets are samples from my “Bohemian Button Bracelet” pattern, these are strung on Soft Flex as the necklace above. The middle bracelet is a sample of my “Button Bracelet” pattern using the peyote stitch.
Vintage at Heart
These are two pins that I made using vintage Mother of pearl buttons. The pin on the left is made from muslin fabric and is covered with buttons. The pin to the right is made from silk fabric with a piece of vintage lace, the buttons are all carved.
Vintage Mother of pearl buttons are still around in some abundance, what will you make with them?
Enjoy what you do, it’s good for you! Christen
Free-form Peyote Stitch
Friday’s Favorites is all about the free-form peyote stitch. The peyote stitch is a traditional stitch used by Native Americans in a ceremonial ritual. There is some controversy in using the name of this stitch in beadwork today, but because I have no alternative word, I use it here with care.
The stitch is formed after a row of stitches are added onto the needle and thread; the stitching is then reversed with one bead added onto the needle and passed through a bead in the original row; additional beads are added in this manner. In the free-form stitch beads are added at random in singles or quantities creating a flowing organic form. The beads used are seed beads of all sizes (4-15 in my case), square, triangles, Czech glass beads, buttons, pearls, semi precious beads and basically anything with a hole in it.
Winter Solstice
Winter Solstice was created using the free-form stitch adding and lengthening as needed. Here I have incorporated fresh water pearls, vintage shell and glass buttons, and vintage glass sew-throughs with vintage and new seed beads.
close-up
Here is a close-up of the center, showing you the variety of pearls, glass buttons, glass sew-throughs and seed beads. The light blue beads (almost gray) are vintage beads found in the Hudson Bay area, they are over 200 years old.
Summer's By the Sea
Summer’s By the Sea was created using the same techniques as above, incorporating shells that I had found on Catalina Island as well as on the beaches of Southern California. Here I have incorporated vintage glass beads, vintage glass charms, abalone beads and chips, fresh water pearls along with the vintage and new glass seed beads.
close-up view of free-form peyote stitch
Here is a close-up of the wonderful button shells that I found on Catalina Island.
Jeweled Pi
This is a close-up view of the Jeweled Pi bracelets, which is one of the patterns that I teach and sell. I have incorporated large Pi or shell discs, along with buttons, jade pieces, fresh water pearls, semi precious stones, and seed beads of different sizes.
Tatiana's Enchantment
This necklace is from my Entwined Roses class, which incorporates ribbon worked flowers and leaves and the free-form peyote stitch. This class and the Entwined Treasures class both use silk cord and rayon cords as a base for the neck-piece. The flowers, buttons and beads are stitched on and around the base of cords which give a certain amount of stability and help to defray any tension problems that can arise when stitching without a base.
close-up view
This is a close-up view of the center, showing you the ribbon worked flowers that lay amongst the bead-work and buttons.
Woodland Elf
This is a close-up of my Woodland Elf necklace, which uses the Entwined Roses pattern. This is a wonderful collection of treasures: tiny sea urchins, vintage troca shell whistle buttons, fresh water pearls, jade charms, ra ku buttons, bronze charms from Big Sur, a dyed gourd, shell flowers….. and more.
Beadazzled Somemore
This is a close-up view of the Beadazzled Somemore class and pattern that I teach. The free-form stitch is attached to the fabric at intervals, and then stitched using the same techniques as a regular peyote stitch.
Ocean River's Bracelet
The Ocean River’s Bracelet uses the same concept as the Beadazzled Somemore, using a ribbon base to work the free-form stitch onto. This is a class that is on the current Winter Schedule for Joggles.com.
When all is said and done I enjoy using this stitch both in the structured and unstructured forms, both having their merits in history and style. Happy day to you, enjoy what you do and make everyday count. Christen
Spanish Moss
The bracelet above is the second sample of my Ocean Rivers Bracelet. The stitching technique is one that I developed using free-form peyote stitch on fabric.
Happy stitching, enjoy! Christen
Lothlorien Twilight
“Lothlorien” is where Galadriel lives in J.R.R. Tolkien’s magical world. The cloaks that she and her ladies made, that were given to the “Fellowship of the Ring” were said to have been made with a cloth that reflected the leaf, branch, water and stone of this realm. I felt that the colors that I chose for this piece reflected the same thing. Hopefully the magic will be reflected here too!
embroidered center
The background is a vintage embroidered silk purse, probably from China. The purse itself was too delicate to be used as such, so I have tried to preserve it’s beauty, and add it to my collection of art. Each piece of embroidery is comprised of single “Peking or Chinese Knot”, incredible in itself the work that went into each piece! These were each stitched separately then attached by hand to the brown silk. The rows of gold work that attached each design had come apart so I hand stitched these back in place first before I added in my own embellishments.
Then it was time to add in some of my own work. I beaded three dragonflies that have a dentalium shell body that is beaded and wings that are beaded. I made several sets of brick stitched leaves and interspersed them through the sections of flowers. I also beaded a few vines of brick stitched leaves.
embellished and beaded center
I hand stitched several butterflies from French wire ribbon, and added dentalium shell bodies which are beaded. I also made hand stitched flowers from grosgrain ribbon that I stitched with vintage celluloid button centers. I antiqued both the flowers and butterfly bodies with copper fabric paint.
Several more flowers were made from silk bias ribbon and vintage velvet ribbon. These have beaded centers and are interspersed between the butterflies and larger flowers.
I used many vintage buttons that I have collected over the years including carved Tahiti shell, “tinnies” and celluloid which were used around the outer edges. Several new dragonfly and butterfly buttons and charms were also found to complete the theme.
Full wall hanging
I had a wonderful time collecting all of these treasures, then finding a home for them to reside.
The last item I found at Maureen’s Vintage Acquisitions was the mini quilt hanger with the dragonfly on the top! Perfection!
I hope that you enjoy what you do, have fun today and do take a look at the other entries for this challenge, they are all unique and incredible!
Happy stitching, collecting and treasure what gifts you have! Enjoy! ~Christen
Santa Fe Talisman- necklace
The inspiration for the colors of this neck-piece came from the wonderful colors in the abalone and Tahiti shell buttons. Other buttons include hand carved jade, turquoise and shell. The base of the necklace is comprised of two vintage velvet ribbon stitched together, using my Vintage Bling Bling pattern.
All of the components: the buttons; glass and shell charms; seed and novelty beads that are encrusted around the base took a lifetime to collect. The vintage carved tahiti shell buttons were a gift from a friend; the abalone buttons I made myself in high school; the turquoise buttons were bought at the Palace of the Governor in Santa Fe, New Mexico a few summers back.
Other treasures include shell discs that came from an old necklace I wore in high school; fresh water pearls, vintage trade beads and new glass beads I have collected from many bead shows and fairs.
Santa Fe Talisman- bracelets
The first bracelet “Anemone” is loaded with dangles of all kinds. These are stitched to a base of large seed beads with a vintage button for the closure. The second bracelet is from the “Button Brigade” pattern with carved floral pua shell buttons.
The treasures of the summer and the sea bring a life time of joy and beauty. Enjoy your stitching adventures…. Christen
Victoriana- silk ribbon embroidered vest
This is a collaged montage of a few of the embroidered sections from my Victoriana vest. This vest is shown here in it’s second incarnation. The original was a solid piece of fabric with the manipulated ribbon work sections, lace sections, and ribbon embroidery, similar to The Edwardian, and was the original sample for Vintage Redressed pattern. Sadly the vest had an accident with the iron, and several sections of ribbon work melted! Yikes!
So I cut out the sections that I could save, found a compatible fabric to the original, and crazy pieced the front sections with the saved embroidery, and simplified the back by just using the dyed lace pieces, buttons and beads.
The silk ribbon embroidery sections were worked with 2mm, 4mm, and 7mm silk ribbon, vintage ombre ribbon, and buttonhole twist thread. The ribbon worked flowers are made from satin ribbon. I added in seed beads in sizes 6,8, and 11 for details. Metal charms and vintage buttons complete the details.
Victoriana- vest
The beret and purse that I wear with this vest are made from the original fabrics, and the Lady Alexandra is the jewelry that is worn with this outfit.
Enjoy your day, happy stitching… Christen
The Cotillion Tassel
This tassel is a most feminine tassel, perfect to adorn that special armoire or chest of drawers. I have made several tassels in my time, and I hang them on an old fence post that my husband attached to the wall.
This tassel is a sample from my Cotillion Tassel pattern. The tassel is embellished with hand made flowers and leaves using a variety of ribbons and trims including:
The velvet ribbons were stitched into leaves and used at the top of the tassel as well as the calyx for the modified fuchsias which are made from the French wire ribbon. The vintage French jacquard has a disc at the bottom and is embellished with seed beads. The rococo trim is wrapped around the silk cord which is further embellished with beads and charms. Flowers made from the wire and the ombre ribbons are sprinkled around the top of the tassel.
To finish off the embellishments I added in stamens for the flowers, glass butterflies and leaves, and metal flower shaped charms.
Enjoy! Christen
Currents- free form embroidered vest
The vest is made from a Hoffman Bali Batik fabric, in the colors of a rich cranberries and currents, shot with hints of mango, teal and mustard. I used these accents colors for the fabric yo-yo’s made from cotton velveteen, and metallic silk fabric. This was the sample for my Currents class.
The cotton base fabric is machine quilted with a double needle in some sections and free form stipple quilted in others. Machine embroidered sections of covered yarn resemble branches or vines (teal green), and provide an anchor for the additional embellishment of hand applied rayon cords.
Hand embroidered shisha mirrors are seen amongst needle lace embroidery. Beads and buttons are used along with metal charm embellishments to compliment the sea theme.
Happy Stitching, Christen
Christen's Creations 