A few days ago I posted about this ongoing project.....and now I'm reporting that progress is not going well. Normally, I draw my design onto stabilizer, which is basted to the wrong side of felted wool. Next, I machine stitch the lines to transfer the pattern to the right side, adding further stabilizing as I bead along the stitched lines.
Because I didn't really know how the 'eye' of this feather would translate to beads....what amount of space it'd take etc, I didn't feel confident in documenting where the feathers would be placed. So instead, I decided to eye ball it. Oops!
After beading about 3/4 of the feather....knowing pretty much as I went along that it wasn't right....and hoping that as I proceeded it would somehow 'get right'.....dah....I took out a majority of the beading and am starting over. Originally, my plan was to bead a complete feather, from the center out, and that's where I went wrong.....the shape just wasn't correct.
I retained some of the poor feather placement on the left so you can see what didn't work. Now I've started over on the right. I've marking a line around the actual feather, so hopefully the outside shape will be more realistic. The feathers near the top will be much closer together and will curve around and up from the center motif.
Sure, it's frustrating to rip out hours and hours of stitching, but alas, I want it right, so here I go again.