Beaded Kamal Kadai - a mini tutorial

Tutorial time!!!

Couple of months back, I received a mail from Linda Chadwick regarding a variation of Kamal Kadai which her mom had done. While corresponding about the same, I'd told her that I'd try and post a tutorial on how to do this variation.For those who're unaware of Kamal Kadai aka Navar Kuttu aka Teneriffe ,here's the tutorial of the actual method.

Today's variation is slightly different from the original in that it uses beads and a slight change in the weaving method.Let us see how it goes.Click on the photographs for better view.

Step 1:

Here's the basic structure of the flower Iam going to stitch.

Step 2:

Add lines in a staggered manner to each petal. First draw the middle line from the tip of the petal to the base . Then add even number of lines to either side. Remember, the total number of divisions in each petal should be odd.

Step 3:

The base for weaving is being created here.Come up at the bottom of the petal and string the bead. Note that I've marked the hole through which the thread enters the bead as 'A'.

Step 4:

Go down according to the diagram made earlier and come up at a point close by.

Now, pass the needle through 'A' again and go down to tack down the bead. If you don't do this ,your bead will be running up and down the thread. You don't want that,do you?

Step 5 :

Complete the foundation. The beads should've been smaller. It would've looked a little more elegant.I didn't have smaller sized ones , so I 'adjusted' with these :) They are of poor quality,you can see that many are peeling off.I got them about 5 years back to try beading bottles.Still haven't attempted that, so here they are :)

Step 6 :

Start the weaving as in the original tutorial . Note that after a certain level, you've to skip the outer most foundation lines so as to give a step by step effect. Let me show you one more pic.

Have a look at the pic above.After weaving through the entire 7 lines in the petal for 7 or 8 times, I skipped the lines marked with red and continued the weaving through the middle 5 lines. Then I skipped the outer lines in that bunch ,weaved through remaining 3 lines and ended the weaving slightly below the top beads.

Here's the completed flower with the jumbo beads. To be frank, I don't like those beads there at all.If you're attempting this method,get some smaller beads.Small is always beautiful!!

This flower is infact stitched on a recycled cushion cover with the old dupatta. It looks like this now.

Iam wondering what to add on for the completed look. Some more jumbo beads here and there? Some flowers here and there? What do you think?I seem to be running short of ideas.

An undergrad guy has been coming to learn programming during the past few days.He was desperate as there is only one month left for the final exam and he has absolutely no idea what programming is.Iam trying my best to help him out.So my head is kind of stuffed with programming concepts now. This tutorial sprouted somewhere in the middle of all that.Hope you enjoyed it.

Ok then, I'll see you around,

Love,luck and sunshine,

Deepa