The art of beadwork is believed to have begun its life from Mesopotamia and later been carried to Egypt where it remained till 33 BC and finally earned global attention. Meanwhile, with all the buzz of beads history in world, there also came another story that states, the birth of beads art in India happened during the Indus Valley Civilisation. Beads work have had this long authentic history in this soil since Mughal rule.
In many parts of rural India today, women have established themselves to be one of the best when beadwork comes into conversation. Be it on fabric or jewel, they outshine all the modern day beading machines and prove the worth of handicrafts.
In the Alirajpur and Dahod districts of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat respectively, women irrespective of their caste, class and social background are duly engrossed with their beads to sew them in beautiful patterns on fabric to be later stitched into dress, sarees or any type of cloth. The women empower their own selves and make their ends meet by making money out of the beadwork. Basically, their daily bread depends upon the number of beads sewn multiplied with the number of fabrics sewn over.
PROCESS –
Below is a link to a tutorial on Sewing a Bead to Fabric by MsFrederick122
The process of sewing begins from the selection of the type of fabric and the type of beads. Fabric might vary from cotton to poly brocade to silk (see Image 1). Beads could be seed beads, crystal beads, flat backs etc (see Image 2)
Image 1. Poly brocade; Cotton; Silk
(Source – www.thunderlily.com )
Image 2.
(Source – www.beadloomjournal.blogspot.com )
In case of the beading thread, nylon ones are preferred as it prevents knotting and tangling. For needle, the longer and the thinner than regular ones are chosen as in Image 3.
Image 3.
(Source – www.offbeathome.com )
First, one has to choose the fabric upon which the beadwork has to be done. Then the design is made upon the fabric by a pencil, for dark coloured material, pen should be used, as done in Image 4.
Image 4.
(Source – www.lauramaedesigns.com )
Second, two layers of thread pulled through the needle and a knot is tied at the end to prevent fraying.
Image 5.
(Source – www.instructables.com )
Third, pull the needle through the fabric so that the knot holds on and remains to the side where no bead work is done.
Fourth, string each needle with around 2-3 beads at the same time and push them down to the fabric.
Image 5.
(Source – www.instructables.com )
Fifth, start sewing the beads by pulling the needle from the other side of fabric. Thread the needle back again to be pulled off from the main side. Before the next beads are inserted, the needle is pulled through the previous beads so that there is no gap between the beads.
Image 6.
(Source – www.instructables.com )
Sixth, the beading is done as per the pattern drawn upon the fabric and finally at the end, the thread is cut and another knot is tied to prevent mangle of the beads.
Image 7.
(Source – www.timeless-creations.ca )
This is how beads art work is done by the women in India, which happens to be the trend of all ethnic apparel these days. Moreover, beadwork is considered to be the easiest yet tricky style of costume design.