GetCrafty Craft Facts

Q: Can anyone recommend a good book or magazine article that shows how to go from bead-weaving on the loom, through taking it off the loom, and somehow mounting it onto a support on a barrette. I can sort of guess what might work, but I wouldn't mind benefiting from other people's experience.

A: Try to go to http://beadwork.about.com and ask the lady that puts up a lot of information on the site about this question you have... she may be able to help you. Very professional finishing instructions for mounting the finished beadwork on the metal barette is in 'Carol Wilcox Wells'' "Creative Beadweaving" book on page 37. This shows a peyote stitch beaded barette, but the same mounting technique is used for loomed, beaded barette. To finish the ends of the loomed piece, you need to weave them back into the beadwork in between the threads only. Then, bury it sideways into a row of beading. A barette has at the most 18 to 20 warps to bury so this is not too bad. You can tie them into groups and glue them to the backside of the beads using 527 glue, but this is not as neat or smooth. If you have computer that can see the web, check out the bargello bag project to learn about loomed beadwork techniques at: http://www.beadwrangler.com/project5intro.htm If you're going to be using a leather, or suede backing (I use ultrasuede - cheap scraps in many colors here: http://www.ultrascraps.com/), then you do a "weaver's stitch" (basically just going in and out in one direction and then crossing back the other direction with the alternate in & out) for about a half-inch at top & bottom. Then you can trim the warps right above the weaver's stitch border, fold the borders under and bond them between as you bond the beads to the backing. A backing is a good idea because it will make the barrettes more stable.