Beaded Fans and Ribbon Pansies

I love making the beaded fans.  I do them on felt off-block and the first step for me is to glue down the base or handle.  I did it last night so it would be well secured when I start to bead.  Since marking on black felt is next to impossible, I basted in a basic fan shape for each base to use as a guide.

The bases are all parts of earrings.  The nice thing about fans is that I can often use beads that are just a tad too large or the wrong shape for other bead work.









Here's an example from one years back.











Then there were the pansies and the main problem was not having the appropriate ribbon... I have lots of narrow silk ribbon to embroider with and often find good buys on the internet. But the wider wired-silk is  never a thrift store or bargain find and I didn't have any.

 
I had some finer rayon wired ribbon in the right size and weight but the wrong color (the iridescent purple) but what I could dye was a polyester which was too heavy but I used it anyway. I preferred the back side to the shiny front.  I wanted a "pressed flower look" so I steamed the sections and pounded them with a mallet.

There are several tutorials but the one I tried was at Sunshine designs and it was excellent...

I painted a dark blue around the center before I added the yellow ribbon center.. I definitely want to try pansies again but will keep an eye out for the right ribbon...