Remember that, in the Kimekomi post, I told you about the fabric leftovers I got from my sister and that there was also some metallic blue leather in the bag?
I immediately had a plan for it as it reminded me of my favorite bead color. Another night time scene, yay! You will see, however, that I really held back and only used it as a rather subtle outlining because I didn't want to make the ornament too large.
It also brought back a memory from when I was about 15. Jeans and sneakers, a white men's shirt (not tucked into the jeans), a costume vest (wool striped in grey and black) and the pièce de résistance - a bow tie pin in, I swear, just that metallic blue that I often took off several times before I got it to sit juuust right at the collar. That was also the time of slim leather ties. Actually I went to the job interview at the library dressed like that a few years later. Boy, the 80s, what a time.
Back to my blue leather. I had never done bead embroidery on leather before and wasn't even sure if it would work because I didn't not have special needles for leather. I was prepared to have one or the other beading needle break on me as the leather is not of the thin kind, but luck was on my side although I did need my pliers every, now and then to pull the needle through completely and embroidering went slower than it would have with a different base.
My snowman looks rather classic, I think, made up of three sizes of "snowballs" on top of one another.
I gave him a blue mix scarf with fringe and then noticed that his mouth was obviously hiding underneath because there was no way I could get a whole face on there now if I didn't want to use small beads for the eyes.
For the eyes and the buttons I used O beads. I could have used the other side which is black like coals, but it's hard to resist a beautiful AB finish.
His nose is an orange dagger bead as I didn't have a short spike bead in a good color (I used red ones on my bauble snowmen a few years ago, but didn't have any left). The dagger bead works rather nicely, though.
Last but not least I gave him "branch" arms beaded from a matte metallic seed bead mix I had in my last surprise order. I thought about adding a broom as well, but didn't want the ornament to hang crooked because it had more weight on one side.
I used the same leather for the backing, but refrained from adding an edging this time, not sure if my needle would have been able to deal with a double layer. Instead I used my silver metallic pen to cover the black showing and added small silver dots on the leather in front and in the back for a festive look.
I'm happy about how my little snowman turned out. Although he doesn't have a mouth, it still seems to me as if he's smiling which may be due to the tiny gaps between the beads that I sewed on in circles.
Also it looks to me that, with his arms open like this, he just seems to be waiting for a hug. I'm sure there will be some critters visiting him during the night :-D
