Earrings and More...yay!

Nope, sorry.  Not another pair of earrings.  Instead, i did something new today!  It was slow enough at the shop that i sat in on Melissa's afternoon stitching class.  Today's project was to bezel set an object working in tubular even-count peyote . 

Tracy had a ceramic piece on which her mom had painted a lady's face...Christie had a funky green goddess face...Melissa used a thick cut amethyst cabochon...and i picked a Czech glass button that was very pretty and not too big.  I wanted to finish during class time so i reined in my usual urge to take on too big a project.

How fun is this technique!  Using red 11/0 Delica seeds in an opaque luster finish and leetle teeny 15/0 brown metallic seeds, it took me all of the two hours to make the peyote stitched bezel and bail.  And i did the whole thing by myself!  woot!

Supplies:
Czech glass button with wire shank
Ultrasuede or Lacy's Stiff Stuff
glue
11/0 red opaque luster Delica seeds
15/0 brown metallic seeds
#10 beading needle
Fireline

Cut the wire shank off the button and glue the button to the Ultrasuede.  I used Hypo-Cement and would recommend using something else as the button came loose early in the going.

Begin by outlining the now-flatbacked button with the Delicas.  Then usetubular even-count peyote to build up the sides of the bezel as desired.  Lastly, use the 15/0 seeds to cinch the circlet.  Trim the backing being REAL careful not to cut any threads.

Bring the thread to the top of the piece and create the bail tube, setting it so the finished piece will hang in the desired manner.

A website with good directions on how to actually do this is here.  And...tada!  My first but definitely not last peyote stitched bezel.  How cute is this!!!!

Bead well, everybody.  Wherever you are!

Earrings! Oh EARRINGS!

I have been beading, you know!  Finally finished the second tila bangle!  This one i made just 34 beads long and it fits much better.  Sometimes it takes a time or two with a pattern to fully understand it and how it best fits you.  I used ivory pearl tilas and the same 8/0 dark frost seeds and those yummy 4mm Dorado 2x crystals.  Should i do a third one??  They take a fair amount of time but they are sooooooooooooooo pretty!!

Anyhooey, yesterday i was going through the gemstone strands moving some to the sale table.  I took the green goldstone rounds off the wall and decided to make a bracelet just to see if that would catch a buyer's eye.  Many jewelery designers love goldstone, that sparkly reddish-brown "gemstone" that is also available in a blue color and, more rarely, in this deep dark green.  Goldstone is a manufactured glass product that is cut and drilled like stone and often misrepresented as a gemstone.  Anyways, it is kind of pretty with those copper flecks making the beads sparkle.  And of course once the bracelet was done i JUST happened to have two beads left over for earrings.

I used bright copper beads and findings in the bracelet and carried the bright copper to the earrings but intead of repeating the 8mm round copper beads, i used bead caps as a decorative element.  Initially those bead caps didn't lay flat on the large green goldstone beads.  So i flattened 'em out using a hammer and metal block.  How easy was that?

From there it was... a quick trip to a candy shop where bonbons PLA-A-A-A-A-Y on the sunny beach of Peppermint Bay!  What song is that?  And if you know the song, you'll know who sang it!

I used a bead tip headpin and added a copper plated hex spacer between the headpin and the bead cap for some added interest to the design. Oftentimes, you don't need to symmetrically add the same element(s) to the top of the bead; keep the focus away from the wrapped loop and the connection to the ear wire.

Supplies:

(2) large (12mm?) green goldstone rounds

(4) copper bead caps

(2) copper plated hex spacers

(2) copper plated bead tip headpins

earwires

Assemble and there you are!  Happy landing on a chocolate bar!