One Idea for finishing beadwork

There has been a lot of discussion lately about how to finish beadwork to hang on a wall. Anyone who knows me, knows I hate to weave in warp ends and hence refuse to do it.  Okay, I am stubborn, but I also have the hardest time threading needles so to have to do that a zillion times to finish a piece . . . I just won’t do it.  Plus, my version of “patience” doesn’t cover that activity (which is amusing considering all the things I do that others believe take patients . . . all a matter of perspective).

I found two pieces in my stash that represent one way of finishing a piece.  Since they are already finished, I can’t show you how I did it, but I can tell you how.

I wove both pieces on a Twelve inch wide Mirrix Loom.  The could have also been woven on the Eight inch Mirrix Loom or any loom larger.

The below piece is a bead weaving mounted on tapestry weaving and then embellished with beads.  To finish the bead piece, I tied off pairs of warp threads and buried them behind the piece.  I then sewed it to the wool tapestry.  The wool tapestry was finished by tying off warp ends and folding the header and footer to the back and sewing them down.  I then sewed the final piece to silk . After I sewed it on the cloth I centered the piece on a wooden frame designed for stretching canvas.  I tacked the silk to the back with large head but short nails.

The back of the piece.  Since I thought the tacked silk would look awful on the back, I decided to cover the back with silk tacking it down with the same nails.  But since the raw edges were sandwiched on the back, the piece looks a lot more finished. I then embroidery my initials in beads.  I added a wire hanger.  Done.

The second piece lacks the woolen tapestry.  I used the exact same method but really went to town with bead embroidery on the silk.  Notice how I’ve used bugle beads to embroider all around the piece once on the silk to hide the edges  The other beads are just crazy freeform.  It was a while back. I must have been in one of those moods.

With this piece I also felt a need to cover the back.  I tied the warps in pairs and folded to the back. Sewed to the silk, embroidered the heck out of it and then attached to the wooden frame.

Here’s the back:

And how do you finish your pieces?