Flat Top Casket Progress

Taking Joy....

 Have had a few Sundayes now to work on my casket and look what happened~ a lil beaded stumpwork something was born! Is it a beaver???? Sure looks like a beaver doesnt he....... 

I have been dreaming about working on him for eons...years ago I found a hank of early beads and said to myself, this looks just like a red squirrel! And so...when I designed my flat top casket, Msr. Squirrel was nearly the first must have....to use those beads!

Working this small is hard~ the entire time I felt like I had no fingers~ they were all huge clunky thumbs! At this point, he is more like a sky diving beaver...cause I would fumble quite often and off he would go~ jetting out of my hands like a base jumper waiting for his thread to stop his free fall

 It was easier to work him in my hand, but after I attached him to my frieze he got another  back leg, another little hand, more pronounced nose and ears~ now he is starting to look like a squirrel....

I wanted him to have a big fluffy tail, like ones I have seen in tufted silk in regular stumpwork, so I tried a bunch of different things until I found one I liked. This is a fringe variation...its big and full and you can stick you finger down into it. I am really enjoying translating what would normally be a silk stumpwork into a beaded stumpwork~ its a fun challenge for me to see just what I can mold the beads into....just wish I had more time to work on it!