About Bead Embroidery Backing…

I’ve had a few questions on bead embroidery backing, so I thought I would share a little overview with you – and also a video about it as well.  🙂

What is Bead Embroidery Backing

You’ve seen some of my bead embroidery, and you’ve probably also seen more in magazines and videos.  Maybe you’ve thought about trying it, but you weren’t sure what you should use when actually doing the embroidery.

Quite simply, the beading foundation (backing)is what you actually embroider your beads upon.  You sew upon it, stitching the beads in place.  That’s all it really is, but what do you use?

What Can You Use?

Long ago and far away, fabric and/or interfacing was the backing that was available.  The problem with fabric is that it mostly frayed — a real pain if you were making a piece of jewelry.

Felt was a thought, but it “wilted” pretty fast, and little tufts of felt would get caught in the embroidery — and that was a real pain to pick out if you had a large piece!

Interfacing was decent enough if you got just the right thickness.  However, if you fused two pieces together, it made it kind of tough to get your needle through.  Leather was the same way — you needed a thimble to get the needle through at times.

But what about Ultrasuede?  It doesn’t fray or pill, and it’s much softer than leather or fused interfacing (not to mention easier to get your needle through).  I know there are a lot of people who won’t use anything else.  However, it it floppy, and many pieces need some sort of additional backing.

These days, the beading foundation of choice for most people is something called Lacy’s Stiff Stuff.  You can find it in beading stores and online.  It comes in sheets of 8.5 x 11 inches, and I’ve also seen it in 5 x 9 inches.  It only comes in white, but you can color on it with permanent markers if you want, and it also accepts dye well.

I have recently found something called Nicole’s Bead Backing, which I got from Etsy.  I was lucky enough to attend a class with the true bead embroidery diva, Sherry Serafini, and one of the students in the class had some of the new backing.  The plus factor is that it’s a lot less expensive than the Lacy’s, and it comes in colors!  The only minus I can really see is that it’s too new to have a good idea of how it stands up over time — but I am willing to give this new bead embroidery backing a shot!

So, take a peek at the video below and see for yourself what bead embroidery foundation backing is like.  Then, make your own choice as to what to use on your next bead embroidery project!  (And if you’ve found this video helpful, please give it a “like”).   🙂

Hope you’ve enjoyed this video, and that it was helpful!