Last month I finally had the chance to take a Tambour embroidery class. I've been wanting to do this for awhile but just couldn't figure out how to fit it into my schedule. Luckily Hand and Lock came to Virginia and I was able to escape work for a couple of days to learn a new technique.
I've blogged about The Williamsburg School of Needlework before. Its a wonderful place to take a class. They schedule classes on all types of techniques and host Hand and Lock and the Royal School of Needlework.
Sadly I did not have time to take the whole week off, so I just did the first level of training, but our teacher was great and I learned all the basics I need to practice and get a little better before I get the chance to take the second level and learn a bit more.
I thought the hardest part was just getting the fabric set up on the frame. Our teacher was really great and taught us exactly how they would prep for stitching at Hand and Lock. It's a bit time consuming to do it right, but I can see for big projects how important it is to start correctly.
We started with learning the foundation stitch we would need for beading. It took a while for everything to look smooth and evenly spaced. Its a bit strange to be working on the back side of the project, but there was plenty of time built in to the class to allow us get the hang of it before we moved on to the actual beading.
We learned to bead seeds, bugles and sequins. They each took a little different technique with stitch length.
I have been busy since getting back but I am hoping to finish up the practice patterns the instructor gave us and post it. I love how creative you can be with different types and colors of beads. It was hard not to get a little crazy with all the options the instructor brought.
I really recommend the Hand and Lock Tambour beading class and any course at the Williamsburg School of Needlework. The instructors are great, but also the other women in the class were so interesting. One of my favorite parts of the two days was, once everyone got comfortable with the technique, we shared our backgrounds and experience with stitching. These women were so creative and accomplished. It was an extra bonus to an already great class.
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