Miniature Glass Beads, April 19, 2007
Good Evening All,
Welcome to the new format for our blog. For those of you who perused the old blog - this one should be easier for you to make comments. Now that the web site is up and running, I'm hoping to find more time to make weekly entries here. Again, as with the last blog, I won't be yammering on about my personal or business life, rather I will be introducing you to new and unusual products and or techniques. One of the great things about having a retail web site is the opportunity to offer to my students and others some of the great products that I enjoy using myself. Which brings us to tonights subject, Miniature Glass Beads.
The name itself is a misnomer, the 'beads' are glass and they are miniature, but there are no holes, just little, shinny, round orbs. We've got them in a dozen or so colors, all have a metallic, luminescent shine. They come in two different sizes, the larger is about the size of round candy jimmies - that you decorate cookies with, the smaller ones aren't much bigger than grains of salt, only round.
They are very easy to apply to any surface. I use our 'Dries Clear' fabric glue to apply them to fabric, but I've used UHU glue too. Once applied, they shed a bit (the excess falls off). To apply, simply squeeze out lines of glue or paint on a thick coat using a paint brush, once the glue is slightly tacky (about 1 minute), shake the miniature glass beads into the glue, pouring on more than needed. Lightly press the beads into the glue and let dry until dry to the touch then shake off the excess beads onto a piece of paper then pour back into the container.
I wouldn't wash the piece except very gently by hand. The close up here shows both the small and the large beads in circles that were squeezed on directly from the glue spout. This quilt was made by my wonderful friend and very talented quilt artist, Ruth Chandler. She painted the pale green silk with Shiva paintsticks, using a bamboo table mat underneath for texture. She painted in reds, violets and dark greens. She then quilted the fabric, added the glass bead circles and the small circles which were cut from a variety of hand made papers.
