Opinions Wanted Bead Weaving

[RoboFramer]

I should have put this topic here and not on warped.

The piece was to be support sewn on to matboard. I decided the needle would have to be a tapestry (ball point) needle - in case I went through a thread.

Not much fun getting a blunt needle through matboard - so I cut a reverse bevel mat to the exact size of the piece, plus a hair, and fixed that to black foam board.

The piece fitted in PERFECTLY in the aperture and it cured the problem of not looking straight - you'd never have guessed it wasn't sitting on the board.

BUT - no way will a needle - ANY needle slide through this, even our finest beading needle, which looks and feels like a piece of wire.

Beading WIRE will slide through, but it's too strong and fits too snug, big risk of smashing a bead - just trying it gave me a scrotum attack.

I should have tested this in front of the customer - she said it was possible - turns out she thought I was going to go through the open beads top and bottom only, with what I don't know as she's already put her thread through!

I've rang her and suggested she adds a 'sacrificial' few rows of beads - and - as she threads them, she stitches through my black foam board at the same time.

She can only do this at the top and bottom - the sides are 'closed' - that will work, but I'll probably have to mat over the sides, there will be no support in the centre and I can't see how there can be.

Don't think a pressure mount would work - and anyway Optium acrylic is out of the question price-wise.

Any other ideas?

 

[i-m-chickie]

What size bead needle did you try?
I know, stupid, you probably have the 12s and better, they are made over there.
What thread did she do this in?
Will it lay completely flat?
How are the edges finished?
How many rows will she add? Same stitch?

I can't quite tell from the pic before, is there any room 'between the beads or are they as packed together as they look?
Will nothing go between them? Wasn't sure from you wire comment.

 

[RoboFramer]

I don't know what size the bead needle was - my wife produced a pack of the smallest we have - I thought they were strands of wire, but they have an eye which flattens if it needs to.

(You have to realise that 'the other side' of our shop left me behind some years ago)!

It (the eye) wouldn't pass between the beads - and the needle itself was such a pain to get through that I knew I wouldn't want to be doing that 50 odd times anyhow!

So we tried the wire that that eye could take - black - hoping I could make loops at the back that I could then stitch - no way could I pass that wire through both the beads and the foam board - not unless I could somehow make the holes in the foam board first - and getting those accurately lined up - forget it!

The beads stripped the black finish off the wire - and that after just poking half an inch through - thinking 'uh-oh' and pulling it back out.

They are tight!

Still not sure what thread she used - she's coming back in Tuesday anyway - these things, she says, are normally hung on a rod with a loop of extra rows - so she doesn't mind adding that for me (or her) to fix it by. So it must be very strong thread!

It won't lay flat at all but it's not noticeably 'lumpy' either.

All the beads, go one way - the top edges are open (holes visible) and the sides are closed.

She says she already has rows from previous/abandoned projects up to 2" deep that she can "easily" add to the top and bottom.

Same stitch? Dunno - but hopefully whatever stitch she uses she can put each - or every other - through my foam board mount, or some fabric, or something I can work with!

 

[i-m-chickie]

Ignore my previous other questions...the twelve needle would turn you into a raging alcoholic and you'd go through, ninety of them.

I have been thinking about this...ALOT.
I have sent out a bunch of inquiries in the beading world...I hope that's OK.
Ironically the guy from Helby is leaving for UK soon for a trade show in Birmingham...he gave me some leads.

Also, the people at Jill Oxton as this sort of thing is their niche...but they are in Australia...

So we'll see...

Have you tried NYMO thread..it is a strong nylon? (Sorry, I can't stop!)

How much does it weigh?
Maybe fabric...Oh, I'll shut up and wait.