Bead Embroidery

In the comments on my last post, I mentioned the possibility of photographing my beaded cabochon work. I created these when I was finding my way as to how I wanted to express myself with beadwork and have not actively pursued selling them. They are not on etsy, flickr or facebook. The first one uses the stacked cage method from Larkin Jean Van Horn's book Beading on Fabric. The cab is made by Robert Jennik of Knot Just Beads near Milwaukee, Wisconsin (he is a vendor at the Bead & Button Show and also in Naperville, IL at the Suburban Bead Encounter). I wish I had purchased more of his work because he has not brought more to Naperville that I have seen, and the round shape was so easy to bead and the colors are versatile.



The next cabochon is an agate I purchased from another beader who was wire wrapping stones her friend inherited. I carefully chose 3 from the large sack she was rapidly wire wrapping while we watched in amazement how easily she accomplished it. I really like the picture nature made in the stone. The cab is captured using the Gourd on the Ground (peyote) method which is the most common method I've seen. You can see that I embellished these in my favorite lacy style.



This last cab is a vintage Swarovski crystal round in emerald which is captured using the Lace Cage method. This was my first and only cuff bead embroidered and glued to a metal form. Besides using too much glue on the ultrasuede (messy), I would not use crystals that stick out from the other beadwork except near the cab. I used size 15 charlottes (no longer being made)for some of the beadwork. Tiny!



I used all three methods of capturing the cab which I found useful based on the shape of the cab. The other book I owned when I created these items is Beaded Embellishment by Amy C. Clarke & Robin Atkins. Both are excellent books with lots of inspirational photos; both books are artists who create in fabric rather than jewelry makers. In the past year, I have acquired The Art of Bead Embroidery by Heidi Kummli and Sherry Serafini and Beading with Cabochons by Jamie Cloud Eakin. When I started looking at the details in these books, I realized each contradicted the others, so I set them aside to explore what works for me. I will share that in my next post.

I have two pins that are about halfway completed...waiting for gluing...and a dozen or so more for earrings and pins. I have a lot of beads, but seldom the ones I need. My goal for making pins and earrings is to get lower price point items in my inventory.

Expressing My Values in Daily Life

I have the personal belief that the random books I pick up to read have personal messages for me in my current life. Lately, I've been reading about self sabotage by valuing others more than myself leading to less time and resources spent on my creative activities because of doing for others. Last night another source helped me realize that my Christian upbringing emphasizing doing for others, being Christ like, and the values I was taught as a child encourage this.

Spending time with an authority figure from my childhood often leaves me stuck in regards to my creative work. As an adult, I realize that although I do not want to live my life this way or pass these values on to the next generation, it still effects my daily life. So I need to learn to live my values, those that say personal expression is important, that I am important.

The Chapter in Marry Your Muse by Jan Phillips titled Mom's Advice has an Action of writing five distractions from your life that keep you from attaining a more peaceful state of being. It suggests that if the distractions were eliminated, you would have more time to do the things you truly desire. It asks what truly prevents me from doing what I want to do. I know that I will be going through the motions at first in order to change this value in my daily life actions. But this is a change I want to create.

Recently I have been accummulating things needed to do bead embroidery, but have not been able to actually start it. I want to paint the Lacy's Stiff Stuff so I don't have the possibility of the white background showing through. So I am going to glue some cabochons on unpainted and paint another sheet in a dark blue/green which are the colors of most of my cabs. Then I will be one step closer to actually doing the bead embroidery that I want to do.

Recently Completed Projects

I have attended a couple of Art Fairs that I was not invited to participate in. One that I was on the wait list for, I'm doubly glad I did not participate in (rain and my customer doesn't shop there) and the other is one where a lot of the artists repeat year after year, and there was no art jewelry, just strung items. I have to keep reminding myself that I cannot price beadweaving at strung jewelry prices. So I've decided to make some strung pieces that will be priced competitively with those artists items along with my beadwoven pieces. In mid August, I am doing a talk about my art and will focus on explaining what goes into my highest priced items. Sorry I don't put photos of these on the internet but the heading for my blog is part of one of my favorites.

I used lavender pink fresh water head drilled pearls in a flat spiral bracelet with Swarovski victorian rose crystals and firepolished amethyst ab beads.

Liked the colors so much I did my first tubular right angle weave necklace which took a while since I knotted each embellishing bead. I've made cuff bracelets embellished completely with Swarovski crystals (more than 500), so it's not my longest project. The colors are ones I like to wear; the colors seem to get softer as I get older and grayer.

I have ideas for rings in these colors, so I will get back to making them soon.

Another project was an eggshell/ivory colored dutch spiral necklace; I finished the strung part very early this morning. I like the 4.2 mm gold filled roundels between the beads. Cluster earrings with cream pearls and crystal golden shadow need some pearls on order. I ordered Swarovski light gold pearls and really like them, too, but decided to use the roundels and not add the golden yellow in the pearls. Another project?

Thanks for the inspiration on how to cut and paste my pictures throughout my blog! Right click is my friend!