Friday 9 March 2012

Beaded Stumpwork Raspberry - felt padded

There are several ways to work berries, so I'm having a go at a few and sharing them.  This time we're going to be looking at creating a beaded berry with felt padding, which is worked all in one piece and means there's no need to be creating fiddly little slips!!

Here are the red beads all set out ready to work with.  I've really enjoyed the chance to get my bead collection into use.  I've finally got several packs that have been waiting for their turn open and been able to see how well (or badly) they fit in for certain elements.  That's always fun, isn't it?  In this case, the four packs on the right hand of the photo were good.  The two on the far left were either too dark or not translucent enough for the desired effect.


You start out by stab-stitching a small circle or oval of felt to the main fabric.  Here I've used a piece of grey to get things started, partly to preserve my red for when it was needed and partly as it was a denser felt, easier to work with than the red.


Over the top of the grey under layer was stab-stitched a larger red layer.


Once the padding is in place, begin to stitch down the beads.  I worked in a fairly random manner, selecting beads from the pack just as my hand went to them - so no deliberation about it.  Here you can see how one is rather too dark and one too opaque and almost orangey, so I didn't use any more of either.


Keeping working until you've densely covered the whole felt pad with red (or black, if you want to create a blackberry - or deep red for a boysenberry.....) beads.


This is what the berry looks like from the side


And this is the back of the fabric.  You may be able to see an indent where the firm stitching down of the beads has pulled the fabric up a bit.  I doubt this will be a problem, but, if anyone has any more detailed information on this, please feel free to leave a comment and I'll update.=)  I still have MUCH to learn and am willing for readers to teach me too.


Here's the finished berry, very much larger than 'life', completed with my first successful drizzle stitches.  I actually found those quite hard and gave up on them when I tried for the last tute, but I managed them this time.  They're worked in #8 pearl cotton here and, yes, I know, they still need some work!=)


I hope you've all enjoyed this pair of tutorials and have found them interesting and that they've inspired you to have a go.  Smaller berries can be made by sewing down fewer beads directly onto the fabric and, of course, you can also work them in French Knots and not use beads at all.  If you do have a go at one or more berries, please leave a comment with a link so I can admire your achievements.

© Elizabeth Braun 2012

13 comments:

Lakshmi said...

Hi Elizabeth.
berry look real one and yummy too..
want to give a try NOW..but we are going to see my son today..so once i came back i make few..
indeed both the tutorials on berry inspired me a lot .. thank you for the wonderful tutorial!!

M said...

It looks so realistic! Great tutorial. :)

Bits of Stitching! said...

Lovely raspberry and tutorial! Do you think this technique (with the felt) will work for cutting the berry out and adding it to a project? Or will the felt show through?

I stitched 3 berries a while ago for my sampler wip/ufo. The 1st was only in layers of french knots, the 2nd in a layer of french knots and then adding beads and the 3rd only in beads. I still have to cut them out of the practice piece, gather them and stitch them onto the main sampler piece. Perhaps you saw them on my YouTube videos. However I must say that it becomes difficult to pass the needle through all those layers, I even manage to break a needle for the 1st time ever. I'm thinking that with the felt as base that wouldn't be a problem.

Sparklyjools said...

Another really great tute, clear, concise and easy to follow. Terrific stuff!
And the beads are sooo pretty I simply want to go and buy some more now....

Suztats said...

Love the berry! Great tute. Thank you.

Jennifer said...

I actually like the darker bead...I like how it varies out the colors. It looks like a very yummy berry though!

Isabelle said...

your berry is so cute an your explanations so clear. thanks for sharing !

Rosali said...

Que bonito trabajo con chaquiras. Saludos desde México

Phyllis said...

I just found your site and love it. I am definitely going to try the berries. My husband and I live full time in a motorhome, so I don't have a lot of room for crafts, therefore I stick mainly with hand embroidery. I found your blog thru my international stitchers group on yahoo. I love that group and we do swaps, and share patterns and are just there for each other. We have a lot of members from the uk and new Zealand, ausralia, etc. I have your blog bookmarked.
Phyllis

Wendy said...

Wow, you make it look so easy! I've never tried any kind of stumpwork, so I've bookmarked this to come back to!

l'alternativa said...

Quanti lavori bellissimi e interessanti nel tuo blog, è tutto così fantastico, ti faccio tantissimi complimenti e mi unisco ai tuoi lettori
baci
Emi

exotik1 said...

Hi, Thank you for sharing, I wanted to make a realistic blackberry which has a few dark red beads (like an unripe blackberry).I am new to beading can you recommend sizes/colours so i get the right effect? Can you email me about it please? I saw glass blackberry that Im trying to replicate more affordably and that way I can make a few. also would it word to reshape a mini pompom and sew beads over it? Thank you for your advice! :)

Elizabeth Braun said...

I'm afraid I *can't* e-mail you when you don't give me an address. Anyway, I'm no expert on beading, and the sizes and colours you need to select according to your own needs and tastes. I used a number of Mill Hill Seed Beads for this project, petite ones could also be used for a smaller berry. You'll be able to see colours on either a web store's catalogue or in your local needlework store.
Enjoy!

 
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