Pillow Talk

The Inspiration:

When I moved into my first apartment, I was working in a department store, and usually spent most of my paychecks on home décor items. One day a shipment of rose-embroidered pillows came into the store, and I grabbed one of every color. Of all the frivolous purchases I made during that time, the pillows are the only things that have survived every move since.

Although I’ve lived in many apartments over the years, and have had a lot of different furniture, it wasn’t until last year that the pillows truly matched the other items in my living room. The new pale blue couch is a great background for my cushion collection.

I really love the coppery orange-brown against the different shades of blue. Since I just happened to have some beads to match, I decided to capture the color combination with some beadwork.

The Beads:

The coppery bugle beads are such a rich color, but it’s a difficult shade to match. Aside from black, there are few other beads that would pair well against that vibrant metal. Of all the seed beads in my stash, this foil-lined blue mixture is the only thing close to a perfect contrast.



The Beadwork:

I decided to showcase the bugle beads in a laddered herringbone bracelet, one of my favorite techniques. The blue beads are essentially random, though while stitching I tried to make sure that there was little or no repetition in the rows. Rather than scoop up beads at random, I usually found myself selecting the 'right' shade of blue in each stitch.