BEADING CACTUS SPIKES

I've switched my attention back to my felted wool cactus piece.  I'm NOT a good sitting idle-tv watching kinda gal.  Oh, I LOVE the trash reality shows on Bravo...wouldn't miss them....but evenings revolve around whatever 'the husband' has DVR'd.  Which often means I'm not that interested, so keeping my mind and hands busy is a must.

 After embroidering the small cactus plants, it was time to bead the large motif. I didn't document my first attempt....upright bugle beads, but after adding about a dozen, a quick decision was made to nix that idea.


Next came seed bead 'towers' using iris #11 seeds.  I'm sorry to have to admit I  stitched quite a lot before I changed my mind about the color.  Though I wanted the foreground images to appear darkish to aid in the sunrise/sunset appearance of the background....after viewing the results I just didn't think it was working.

So, I ripped them out and began again with these lighter colored beads.  Because nature isn't one color, I like to bead using a variety of shades of a specific color.  Though it may not appear so in this photo, in person, that approach definitely adds depth and interest to the piece.


As you can see...I have a lot of non-TV watching to do.