Bead Work, Pearl Work And Material Embroidery Work

The art of bead embroidery is one of the most popular embroidery work used in lots of varieties of apparel clothing, accessories and other products. The bead work is used seperately or combined with other types of embroidery such as sequins, zari, zardosi, crystal etc. Beads come in all variety of shapes, sizes, colors etc. Bead work is a very old form of embroidery. Beads are stitched to the fabric for decoration adding textures and richness to the end use. Any hollow small item with a hole can be used in bead work. 

Pearls are again hollow material with a hole at the center and is embroidered the same way as that of the beads. Material work is done using fancy material in different shapes and sizes. In the following contents i have written about the method of attaching beads; different varieties of beads and different methods of bead work; images of various fabrics embroidered with bead work, pearl work, and material work combined with other types of embroidery, Indian traditional bead embroidery and much more

Materials required for bead embroidery

• Fabric -  Any fabric on which bead embroidery has to be done.

• Embroidery thread - Cotton embroidery thread or nylon thread. 

• Trimmer - To trim the thread.

• Beads/ Pearls/ Materials - Bead/ pearls/ Materials which are to be sewn on to the fabric. 

• Embroidery frame -  Embroidery frame to keep the portion of the fabric tight to make it convenient for the embroidery. 

• Embroidery needle -  There are wide varieties of embroidery needles available. The size of the needle can be chosen according to the size of the bead and the size of the hole in the bead. 

How to attach a bead to the fabric?

A simple bead can be easily attached to the fabric.

1) Thread a needle and make a knot at the end of the thread. Fix the fabric on the embroidery frame. Now the fabric is ready to be embroidered. 

2) Bring the threaded needle from the back of the fabric to the front of the fabric at the point where the bead has to be attached. 

3) Take a bead and insert the needle through the hole in the bead and return the needle to the back of the fabric and fasten it. 

4) A number of beads strung on to a strong thread can be couched on to the surface of the fabric. This is a quicker method if you are covering a large area with beads. 

Bead Varieties

There are wide varieties of beads like sugar beads, bugle beads, glass beads, plastic beads, stone beads etc. Beads are available in different sizes, shapes, colors etc. There are beads which are solid and there are transparent beads too. Thin cylindrical beads which are hollow in shape called as bugle beads are also available. Few beads have a matt look and few are shiny. There are bead which shines in multi colors too like rainbow sequins. Pearls and materials are also available in different colors, sizes and shapes. I have shared with you a lot of images of  embroidery work done using different varieties of beads, pearls and materials in the below contents. 

Embroidery border done using pearls and sequins work

                         

A beautiful neckline embroidery done on a brocade fabric using beads combined with thread work and kora work. 

                                                   Image of sugar beads

           Beautiful butti done on blue silk using white pearls and silver zari work

Material work butti combined with zari work and stone work done on brocade fabric


                                                                           

  Images of two different types of materials which can be stitched on to the fabric for decorative purpose

Material work border 

                                                       

                         Embroidery sample done using white bugle beads

 Embroidery done on a sleeve piece on a velvet fabric using tubular shaped beads shining in multi colors

       Neckline embroidery on a satin fabric done using stone work and bead work

                         Embroidered butti done using beads and a stone

      Appliqued flower design embroidery border using pearl embroidery combined with other embroidery  

                         Embroidery border using silver sequins and stones

              Embroidery motif done using zardosi, stone, sequins and bead work



Indian Traditional Bead work embroidery

Saurashtra Bead Work

Kutch and Kathiawar are famous for bead work. Many designs using beads are created where the entire surface is built up out of beads. The background is of white beads and the pattern is done using colored beads. The size of the beads are uniform to get a rich effect. This type of bead embroidery shows only beads and not the fabric. 

The motifs like elephant, camel, petal, creepers and flowers are used. The principal colors of the beads are yellow, green, red, purple and blue. Deep bottle green and bush green are the most desirable colors. 

Telangana Bead Work

Here the bead work is done on choli and worn by Women. This was practiced in small village called pemborti. 

Blue colored fabric is used on which the work is done with white thread and needle. Wide range of designs are used in varieties of products such as sarees, home furnishings like bed covers etc. 


Bead Work Using Machines

As any other type of embellishments bead work can also be done using machine embroidery which is faster and is suitable for mass production as any other embroidery work done on machines. There are various computerized sewing machines which is used to sew beads and sequins on to the fabric.