Beaded Bag Part 2

So, it's been a couple of weeks since I posted the progress on my beaded bag... I have made a bit of progress!

First off, I've removed one of the chatons that I had initially attached... I just didn't like the way it looked.  I knew that I wanted to make the rest of the chatons stick up less from the surface of the bag... so I have developed a new way of beading them!  Instead of making a quick bezel for the chaton, and sewing it onto the backing, I've started doing more beading around them, then sewing the whole component on.

This component is an 8mm chaton, surrounded by several rows of circular peyote, then a ring of 4mm bicones, in 4 different shades of white and crystal... then a few rows of embroidery in gilt-lined opal.

This is possibly my favourite component on the whole bag... a 12mm rivoli , with a ring of 3mm bicones in rose-water opal around the edge of it

This element is super-sparkly, surrounded by antique rose swarovski bicones, with little gold size 15s highlighting the end of the crystals.

A light-colarado topaz chaton is at the centre of this element, with plenty of rose-water opal bicones surrounding the circular peyote piece holding the chaton in place.

The chaton in this piece is surrounded by tiny 2mm pearls and dusky pink size 11s.  Somehow, it looks to be spiraling out from the centre of the chaton, which I really like.

These are the remaining sparkles that I have left to attach to the backing, two of them have already been beaded around, but the others have yet to be started.

I did go on a little sparkle-buying splurge, and bough some more crystals to go on the bag - two pale gold swarovski pearl cabs, some 24k gold plated fire-polish crystals, and some 3mm crystals in rose-water opal and crystal AB.  This bag is going to be so bling by the time I finish with it!

This is my current progress... I really need to get going with it - every time  look at it, I realise just how much beading there is to do between the sparkles!

Beaded bag part 1

At the moment, I am planning my wedding. I'm lead to believe it's quite a stressful thing to do... 

We would like our wedding to be as quirky as us, and part of that is basing it on a handmade theme. We would like as much as possible to be handmade and individual, preferably made by us, or people we care about.

One thing I decided I would like to make for the wedding is a small beaded clutch bag to keep my essentials in... such as my asthma inhaler.  I've never made anything like this before, and I've certainly never attempted a project this big.  I thought it would feel daunting, but I'm so excited about it, I'm enjoying it without feeling worried about the scale of it.

I've seen some bead embroidered bags before on the internet, and from what I can work out, they've been based on an existing bag. The way I'm making mine is to use a plastic mesh bag frame as the base. I've drawn the shape out on some blackout curtain lining, and I am embroidering onto that.

The first step was to decide on a rough design for the bag... I knew I wanted it to be mainly white, but with hints of gold and pale pink. I also knew I wanted a lot of sparkle in it, so I put together a selection of swarovski rivolis and chatons in crystal, crystal AB, rose-water opal and light colarado topaz. I scattered these over the bag template and shifted them around until I had a distribution I was happy with... and then I marked which stone went where.

I've started beading bezels around the swarovski stones, then sewing them onto the backing and embroidering around them.
I am so excited with the progress so far... but I know there is a very long way to go.  I will keep updating photos on this so you can see the progress.