Just sayin, that's all

I realized that the beadweaving idea actually goes along with an unfinished work that's destined for the April exhibit anyway, so with this rationalization, I warped up a homemade cardboard loom and tried it out.  It is the greatest fun, and I highly recommend it as silly play.  And it turns out that it's not such a sidetrack after all. More like my subconscious directing events.

I did try another way of doing this, using a tin lid and beading filament, exercise in frustration, as the filament didn't want to cooperate, and I had terrible trouble persuading it to warp, no matter how many clips and tapes I used. 

Then I tried my potholder loom, but the slots were too far apart to work for beads. and the filament still wasn't happy.  

So I changed to a crochet thread for the warp and one of those cardboard looms I made a few years ago and find that this is working nicely.  You'll notice that it gets narrower, but the narrow part is the finished size I want, so when it comes off the loom, the ends will shrink a bit to fit.  

The warp thread never penetrates the beads, so it doesn't matter if it is too thick to do that, since the weft thread is a very fine one I've been using for bead embroidery, quite strong,very pretty changing color, and even if visible, will work with the changing colors of the beads.  The visible warp isn't a problem, since it will work with the piece this weaving is going to be mounted on.