I am continuing on my monochromatic silver beading journey just so that I could get more comfortable with this whole bead embroider business. I again used different types and shades of silver ( I keep wanting to write different shades of grey but I have to stop myself from doing so :D) beads that I had just to see how they would look next to each and to be honest what I am seeing is that using all different shapes, sizes and finishes does not make the beadwork look all that bad. I thought it might look a little bit too haphazard and busy but I don’t think that’s really happened here.
I have been looking around for interesting cabochons but I can’t really seem to find something that I like, or the things that I seem to like are kind of expensive and at this point I don’t think I am ready to invest in pricey cabochons; so I decided to make my own.
The centre cabochon in this brooch is made of clear resin and silver holographic glitter and measures just a hair smaller than a normal 30×40 cabochons but I like the mould because the resin comes out of it super shiny and doesn’t need to be glazed.
I decided to do a peyote stitch bezel around the cab, which is something I hadn’t done before and I thought it was about time to try. I did a base row with size 10/0 silver delicas around the cab and worked my way up to two rows of size 11/0 seed beads, each in different colour and finally two rows of size 15/0 delicas.
The most problem I had making this brooch was sewing up the last row. I find it’s always a little bit of a hit and miss when using alternating beads of different shapes and size. Sometimes you get to the last two and you see that you don’t have enough space to keep the same alternating pattern going but most times with a little bit of coaxing or readjusting the spacing between the beads you can get it to work. The most important thing is for it to look aesthetically pleasing to your eyes. I find myself being able to tolerate a little bit of space between the beads if that means that I don’t have to use the same bead twice and break the continuity of the pattern. But I have seen a lot of bead work that have just used a bead that can fit into the space and fill it up and it doesn’t look too bad. But as I said it has to be whatever you are comfortable doing in your own work.
To finish off the edge I used size 15/0 delicas, which is a repeat of the last row of beads I used for the bezel around the centre cabochon to do a clean edge and finish off the brooch. In hindsight I could have used the last row of alternating bead to finish off the edge but this was one of my earlier pieces.
LIST OF MATERIALS USED:
- STEEL METALLIC DELICAS SIZE 10/0
- SILVER-LINED CRYSTAL SEED BEADS SIZE 11
- HEMATITE GREY METALLIC SEED BEADS SIZE 11
- SILVER SEED BEADS
- SILVER-LINED GREY DELICA BEADS SIZE 15/0
- GALVANIZED GREY LUSTRE DELCA BEADS SIZE 15/0
- DARK GREY SWAROVSKI PEARL,3MM
- GREY TWO-TONED FIRE POLISH GLASS CRYSTAL, 4MM
- WILDFIRE THREAD
- LACYS STIFF STUFF
- E-600 GLUE
- BLACK ULTRA SUEDE
BEADFEAST 