Why is everybody screaming? (Beadwork Ice Cream Art)

This is for a charity auction, and I’m so happy I finally got to combine my two great loves of beadwork and laser cutting. The background is engraved 1/16” clear acrylic with a paint fill. Then the mounting for the beadwork is made of the same acrylic. The clear layers add a lot of depth, but all the reflective surfaces made it difficult to photograph.

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Nice. Can you talk about the beading process?

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Love it. Looks great!

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Wow this is a wonderful piece of art! Your two great loves work very well together!

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Very cool way to showcase your beadwork!

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Looks great

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Love it!

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did you engrave the tracks for the beads or place them manually?

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Pretty sure the beadwork is done on fabric with thread, and then mounted to the rest.

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Im curious to find out.

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I drew the outlines of the ice cream cone on a piece of fabric and colored it in with permanent marker.The beads are stitched on with thread. I put down a line of beads then go back to stitch in between each bead. Once everything is filled in, I usually cover the back with fabric and then bead the edges together to finish it. In this case I glued a piece of acrylic to the back for mounting and beaded the edges purely for decoration. It’s a very time consuming process, especially when the cats get involved! But it’s very meditative and the results are worth it.

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Do you do only seed beads or have you considered making them on the Glowforge? These are large and clunky (from 2018) but I have since made some very small from thinner wood…

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That’s a beautiful piece of artwork! :heart_eyes:

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Great work! Let’s um know how the auction goes!

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That’s some impressive bead work. I like how it’s combined with laser art.

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I thought you were going to say your two great loves were Glowforge and Ice Cream, and I was like “HECK YEAH, MAN!!!”

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Now that you mention it… make that my three great loves lol

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Those are some unique beads, what did you make with them? It’s hard to imagine going smaller! Seed beads are my favorite, but I have made beads on the Glowforge. I haven’t fully explored the idea, mainly because I haven’t found a glue that is easy to work with and secure enough for everything to stay together.

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If those are made out of acrylic, then acrylic glue (WELD-ON) which isn’t actually glue - is your best bet. It liquifies the acrylic it comes in contact with and then evaporates, so when the two pieces resolidify they are now one. It’s faster than it sounds too :slight_smile:

You can get it lots of places, but for example:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=weld-on&i=industrial&crid=PPE7HOPDCK9C&sprefix=weld-on%2Cindustrial%2C137&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

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Weld-on is too difficult for me to work with so far. By the time I get it into the applicator and then onto the acrylic, half of it has evaporated. I can’t get it on the tiny pieces of acrylic without getting it all over my hands. Then the other half disappears before I can get the pieces aligned together. I’ve also used E6000, which works better when applied from a syringe but is still not great for precision applications. I’ve had some success with Liquid Fusion, but it works best if the acrylic has been sanded and who wants to add extra steps? There’s a good chance I’ll come back around to Weld-on in the end, but for now I’m committed to the glue journey.

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