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Bead embroidered ammonite pendant - part two


Last week, we left off with a bead embroidered ammonite pendant halfway finished!  This week, I want to show you how I edged and finished this particular piece.  It is different from the usual pendant, because the ammonite fossil is nestled down into a thick piece of wool felt.



5.  Here what I've done is to cut a piece of foundation fabric larger than the size of the felt.  I added one row of size 11/0 seed beads in back stitch around the whole piece, stitching through both the felt and the new foundation fabric (the dark fabric above).  It was a pain in the neck to do because of how thick the felt was, but it's only one row!

The next outline row was added in brick stitch, still with size 11/0 beads, anchoring the threads in between the beads in the previous back stitched row.  Follow that with a brick stitched row of size 8/0 seed beads, again anchoring around the threads of the previous row.

Clip the foundation fabric just a tiny bit beyond the outer edge of the last row of brick stitch.




6. Here's another shot just so you can see how the felt is sandwiched between the brick stitched seed beads on top and the foundation fabric underneath.



 

7. To do the edging, cut a piece of backing fabric exactly even with the top foundation fabric and stick them together with a piece of double-sided tape or a dab of glue.  Using size 8/0 seed beads, add edging brick stitch all around the edges, stitching through both pieces of fabric, and -- this is important! -- catching the threads running between the last row of brick stitch added in step 5.

I used size 11/0 seed beads to add a short stack stitch to each edging bead.




8. Add a square stitch bail to the back of your pendant, and you're all set to go!  I usually add 9 rows of size 11/0 seed beads.




This post contains affiliate links: Beadaholique

Copyright 2016 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.

Comments

Jane's Jewels said…
Beautiful piece and excellent explanation. Thank you. Now I need to find put how to stitch a nail like that on the back of my work instead of on top. Beautiful work. Thanks for sharing
Cyndi L said…
Thank you, Jane! I use square stitch to fashion that type of bail.