Spiders and Webs

Posted by Christen Brown on Jul 22nd 2019

Spiders Hide in the Dusk

If you know my work, you know that I sneak a spider and a web into many of my creations. I am in awe of the beauty of a spiderweb, but deathly afraid of real-life spiders! In recreating a spiderweb, I try to capture the beauty of the delicate woven structure. However, when I embroider the spider, I try to create a more whimsical version to somehow confront my fear!

The project above is one that I designed for my latest book, Beaded Embroidery Stitching. It can be found on page 102. The stitches below are included in the chapter Bead Embroidery and Bead Woven Stitches.

Spider Stitch

Spider Web Stitch

Pearly Spider Brooch

This brooch can be found in the gallery section of the book on page 147. You can create this yourself using the instructions for the Basic Brooch, on pages 95–96. The drawn image for the small spiderweb found on page 105 can be adapted to fit the base of the brooch, then worked with the instructions for the spider web stitch on page 63 and the spider stitch on page 70. Additional stitches that I used were the single bead stitch (page 64) and the stacked bead edge stitch (page 75).

In another one of my books, The Embroidery Book, I include instructions for a button spider (page 147), and three webs (the blanket stitch cobweb on page 118, the frilly spider web on page 130, and the lacy web stitch on page 132). In this version of the spider, I have used buttons for the body, but the legs are worked with the fly stitch offset. The legs can be wonderfully wonky and can fit easily into any crazy-pieced creation!