How to build a beaded rock

I thought it would be good in the interest of science to document the progress of the second beaded rock I made. The previous rock was fun to make. I figure I've aquired more beading skills in the year and a half since I made the first one that I could a better job on the second one. A better crab, better barnacles, better seaweed.

To begin you must have a rock, preferably a round-topped flat-bottomed rock. Glue it to a piece of suede that is slightly larger than the rock. stitch beads to the suede, then stitch upward around the rock so that it creates a form fitting fabric. This took me nearly 2 weeks.

After the beads are covering the rock you begin to plan out your barnacles and seaweed. Stitch a single layer of beads for each construction. The white circles are the barnacles, the green circles are the sea anemonies, the red stripe is the seaweed and the blue blob is the crab.

The next step is simply building the barnacles and the seaweed and other sea things.

I found that it was somewhat easier to do all of the solid constructions like barnacles first before moving on to the floppy seaweed.

In all I'd say it took about 3 or 4 weeks from start to finish. Final Product