Beading on a Loom

Unique One of Kind Gifts

My father is an avid fisherman and he often fishes for large mouth bass.  A couple of years ago, for his birthday, I decided to do a picture for him out of beads.

I took a clip art image, and converted it into a beading pattern.

I started out stringing my loom with Nymo.

I begin each piece of loom beadwork with a ribbon of woven Nymo to secure the beadwork.  On the woven ribbon, I also use several rows of plain colored beads to establish the beadwork - that way I can expose more of the actual picture in the frame.

After I get about 5 rows completed, the tension is set for the piece and I'll seal the Nymo ribbon with G-S Hypo Cement.  This creates a very nice finished edge on both the top and the bottom, doing away with the need to manage all those warp lines.

Now that the bottom is secure, I can go to town beading....

and beading......

and beading....

Then when the pattern is done, I add the plain rows of beads on top and do another Nymo ribbon and seal it just as I did the bottom.

Once the glue is set, I can remove the piece from the loom and trim the excess warp lines.  I always choose a backing to compliment my pieces.  There were a lot of transparent and clear beads in this piece to represent water, so I chose a nice blue scrap book stock to go behind the bead work.

I chose a rich green to make the matting to compliment the greens in the fish and the lure in it's mouth.

I secured the beadwork to the back ground, matted and framed it.

And my one of a kind gift was ready for my father.

Happy Beading!

Betsy