Preparing to make Beaded Appliques

Heidi is beading cicadas for her handbag.  The design is drawn onto good quality paper and colored with good quality craft markers. As a precaution the images are sealed with spray fixative. Later the illustrations are cut into a 4 x 5 rectangle and glued to a file folder using an acid-free glue stick. The excess folder is trimmed away.

Below the beading cards are tucked among the beads to be used for beading.  Choosing beads can often be the most enjoyable and the most frustrating part of the beading process. Heidi selected satin beads which reinforces the elegance of the velveteen and art paper.

Reconstruction - Interior Box of Purse

The acetate pattern of the interior bottom was traced onto the beautiful art paper.  When the piece was cut out it was trimmed just inside the pencil line. Two bottoms were traced and cut.

 The pattern was then pressed inside the box. Using a thumb nail or bone folder the edge was crisply pressed into the creases.

Strips were measured on the back side of the paper for the interior and exterior sides of the purse body. The strips were twice the width of the side of the box.

Here all the paper pieces are ready to be attached to the body using Modge Podge.



A clean craft paper surface was laid out for the job gluing.

The adhesive is applied heavily to the box, then the paper is attached.  The wide end of the body indicates the bottom of the purse; here you can see that a smaller joiner piece will be applied over the large piece.

Deconstructing cont.

The original embossed paper covering (which resembled some imaginary animal skin) was scraped off the interior wood case of the purse.  Rough spots were sanded to provide a smooth surface for priming with gesso.