My first Applique'/Bead Embroidery

HI! Everyone!
In the 1970's I Bead Embroidered on the pant legs of friends and the shirts of my Spanish teacher, Sr. Urquides. I do not have any pictures of those but here is the first Bead Applique'/Bead Embroidery as a piece of jewelry in the mid 1980's, around 1985-ish.



There is a lot wrong with my work on these but let me give you a little background, cue the violins. Before the Bead Revolution of the 1990's, there were very few beading books. No beading magazines and seed beads were almost non existent. No bead shops. No place to get supplies. PahShaw you say! Yes. It is true. You could find the obscure Western/Indian/Cowboy shop that would have a few size 10 seed beads in primary colors, no purple or aqua or paparadacha! NOOOOOOOO! And you can't put a red glass bead beside a blue glass bead and get purple. Although they did have Peggy Sue Henry's Beads To Buckskins series books and I bought the new one whenever it got to that shop on 6th street in Klamath Falls, Oregon.....what was the name of that shop..... Oh! Well.... I am getting off track....

What everyone now calls Bead Embroidery I called Bead Applique' (and still do), as I said there were no books to explain these things so I called it what made sense to me: I am applying beads to fabric.. hmmmmm Bead Applique' it is!

Now, to move on with what is wrong with this first attempt:
1. I stitched to felt.
2. I did not use any backing or stabilizer to help stiffen it and hold it's shape.
3. I did not put any stabilizer inside ie: plastic or even an index card. (It used to be suggested to use an index card as a stabilizer on the back side of the felt. Which worked, but I did not like it because what if the piece got wet?)
4. My what I call dangles, you call "fringe", weren't done evenly.
5. My edge stitching isn't the most even either.

I am sure there is more wrong, but those are the major issues. I am a stickler about these things now. I developed my own process which I have modified slightly but stick to the basics of to this day. I use this process in all my Bead Applique' work and my Bead Art/Bee-ead Art pieces. Many Thanks to those who came before me like: Peggy Sue  Henry and Sadie Starr. Their books helped me tremendously. Thanks also to my parents for giving me the spirit of independence and teaching me to use my brain.

Many Beady Days,
Cindy

 

 

Going through the ringer

This photo was taken at a mining museum by my bestest friend  Leslie B. bohm. She saw this old ringer washer and had to stage this picture.
The story behind this photo to the best of my recollection from hearing this story told over the years is:

When I was about 2 yrs old my family lived in a two story house in Bellefontaine, Ohio.The upstairs floor had a huge bathroom that echoed when you walked in, with a small closet back and to the right and window on the east facing wall. On the north side of the room was a claw foot tub that was so much fun to bathe in!
Well, this bathroom was big enough to also be the laudryroom and in there stood the ringer washer. The washer was very modern, it had an electric motor on the ringer. One day I was standing on a chair or stool helping my Mom do laundry, handing her the next item. We were working on towels. The phone rings. Mom rushes downstairs to answer it. She hears me screaming. She comes running back up the stairs to find me being eaten by the ringer on the washer. It was up to my tiny little shoulder chomping away at me! She turned off the ringer and gently pulled my arm from the jaws of the ringer. I was putting a wash rag into the ringer and must gotten my fingers a little too close.
I think I remember screaming and crying and my arm being a little flattened for a few days. Otherwise I was unhurt and do not have any lasting scars either physically or mentally. Hmmmmm. Let me think about that last one......