Just Bead It! ;-D Part I: Beaded Fashions

It's been a long time since an update I'll admit, but I say, "Once a craftista always a craftista!" In my opinion, a true craftista will always find the time to craft, and although this blog's posts have been scarce in recent times, I have been taking the time this past summer to explore a somewhat new realm of craft to me: beading. My posts from last summer showcase a lot of my fabric marker creations which included several colorful pillows that I had sewn acrylic gems onto. I view that embellishments part of that pillow making process to be sort of a foreshadowing to my current fixation on beads. 

As you browse through the pictures below, you will see lots of beaded clothes, hence the Part I Beaded Fashions title above. These projects really took off after I beaded a purple dress/top. If you would like to see a picture of which shirt I'm talking about, feel free to follow this link which will take you to my other blog about graph theory (this is an area of mathematics that I love love love <3). http://torus2torus.blogspot.com/2013/07/rocky-mountain-mathematics-consortium.html

I loved that beaded result so much that I immediately started brainstorming bead embellishments for all of my other clothes. Many times when I point out the beading on my outfits to people one of the first things they ask me is if it takes a long time. I find beading to be an extremely rewarding and relaxing activity, so that combined with the practice really makes it a much faster thing to accomplish than most would guess. This is not asked of me often, but I also like to point out where the beads are from because I think that it adds to the specialness and novelty of the creations. Almost all of the beads that I use are from Wal Mart, which to some craftistas isn't the first store that comes to mind when thinking of craft supply stores. What's even more amazing about the bead origins is that they come in very cheap value tub bins, specifically they are all packed in these five dollar bins of plastic beads; an entire pound of them! I don't believe that they get as much attention as they deserve. Lots of people pass by them thinking that they are tubs of kids' beads, but in reality if you take the time to look through and sort them out you will see that they are actually gold mines! Looking through my beaded creations pictures below I think that you will see that many pretty, unique, and sophisticated embellishments can be accomplished with them, not to mention necklaces which will be the topic of the second part to this post topic. Enjoy! :-D

P.S. And as just a little side note I thought I'd clarify for those interested that the buttons for two of the tops did not come from previously described plastic Walmart bead value pack tub. The brown buttons came form a thrift store (they were selling whole bags of them for ten cents each) and the green buttons are just from the Wal Mart buttons section.