The first piece that I'm going to attempt for the Bead Journal Project this year is some wavy raised circles. These probably have a more technical name, but I don't know what it is. If you're a math-geometry person, will you please let me know? [Note: my friend Paul Bishop tells me that the shape of this form is called a hyperbolic paraboloid! Thank you, Paul.]
The shape at the top of the post is my successful sample. There were a few that weren't really successful until I figured out how exaggerated to make the shapes. What I finally found that worked best for me was to cut the outsides as circles and both insides as long identical ovals. The placement of the inner cut doesn't have to be precise, but the actual size must be exact.
I know they don't look like circles in this shot, but that's just because I took it on an angle. Trust me, the outsides are circles, the insides are identical ovals. I used felt, and each piece was backed with a stiffer piece of black felt before I cut them out.
Taking the first shape, I marked top, bottom, and sides of the oval with a bit of thread.
I did the same with the second shape, but before marking it, I stitched a back stitch row of size 11/0 seed beads around the inner cut.
In order to assemble the wavy raised circle, the top piece is rotated 90 degrees, so that the ovals are oriented in different directions. Matching the threads, stitch the pieces together around the inner oval. Lots of pins will help. It gets a bit tricky, but take your time and try not to stretch the felt. Make sure each mark lines up, and this is what you will get:
Pretty cool, huh? I hope to have this finished by the end of the month, and I'll share the rest of the tutorial and how I decorated it with you!
Copyright 2015 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.
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