Bead Mosaic

Once I saw figures of animals decorated with beads that the Huichol people make I have been obsessed with this technique. They cover the surface of a wooden figure with bee wax and then push beads into the wax.

I didn’t have any wax, so I used PVA glue instead. The base is a wooden vase and the design is adapted from a rainbow. I didn’t have any purple so I took light green beads instead. And shuffled the order a bit.

The vase is getting wider at the base so I added black “worms” that fill in the space. 

A vase with beads glued on

It turned out to be a bit more difficult than I had expected. The most challenging part is to control the amount of glue. If you have too little the beads won’t stick. And if you have too much, the beads will sink in it, and when everything dries out will be covered with a nasty white film. When I made the mammoth eggshell mosaic this white film wasn’t even noticeable.