Ms.Pemberton Brooch

I love the days when I get home and I see packages by the door and you know those packages contain something you really really need!!! I finally got my threads and I have become a beading machine.
All the planning I did last week has really helped move things along. I had done all the sketching, I had chosen which cabochons would go with which design. I had even listed beads I wanted to use on the pieces.

For the first piece I am using another Lori Earley drawing and this one is called “Ms.Pemberton” .how regal is that!
I went with a sapphire blue and black theme. I did a stacked bezel around the focal image and then did a row of alternating faceted glass beads and swarovski pearls.

I wanted the next rows of beading to snake around all the new cabochon and larger beads that I was adding and that needed a little bit of planning as the inside row of beads becomes the outside row when it snakes around the smaller cabochons so in order to get it right I did both the blue/sapphire row and the black row at the same time.

I also used a Copic marker to darken the top two beads a little bit since they were transparent and against the backing they were looking more sky blue than sapphire blue. Colouring the backing and the backs of the beads helped make it a darker colour.

To finish off the piece I went for a free form stacked edge followed by a drop formation on the bottom.



LIST OF MATERIALS USED:

• 30x40 OVAL CLEAR GLASS CABOCHON
• 9mm ROUND OPAL GLASS CABOCHON
• BLACK SWAROVSKI BICONES
• 3MM SWAROVSKI PEARLS IN PETROL
• 3x4mm SAPPHIRE IRIS FACETED GLASS RONDELLE BEADS
• 4x6 PALE BLUE FACETED GLASS RONDELLE BEADS
• 3MM PALE BLUE FACETED GLASS BEADS
• 3mm SAPPHIRE IRIS FACETED GLASS BEADS
• GREEN LINED TRANSPARENT SAPPHIRE SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0
• OPAQUE BLACK SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0
• LACY'S STIFF STUFF
• BLACK ULTRASUEDE
• 1.5-INCH BASE METAL PIN BACK
•  E-6000 GLUE

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Posted by Mana © BeadFeast. All Rights Reserved

Leila Brooch

I do enjoy the darker side of things, but just so I won’t get too comfortable with things I try from time to time to do something a little bit more light and airy.

You can never go wrong with a Lori Earley painting. I mean no matter what you do around the piece; it’s going to look gorgeous cause her stuff are just beyond beautiful.

Leila is a beautiful blue-eyed, blonde girl and to complement her complexion I went with my trusted gold and pearl pallet. To me Leila brooch is the younger less sinister sister of the Ms.V brooch I posted a while back.

She has a softer look and she doesn’t have that evil look that I see in Ms.V’s eyes.

 After a simple bezel work, I went with a staggered pearl effect around the cabochon and then finished off the piece with an alternating stacked edge.

In order to compliment her cool tone and blue eyes I did use a gold amethyst colour bead very sparingly around the cabochon also the pinkish crystals used around the edge give a slight bluish sparkle which ties everything together very nicely.

LIST OF MATERIALS USED:

• 30x40 CLEAR GLASS DOME CABOCHON
• 3x4 LIGHT CHAMPAGNE FACETED GLASS BEADS
• 5MM WHITE PEARL
• 4MM WHITE PEARLS
• 3MM WHITE PEARLS
• 24KT GOLD FINISHED SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0
• TRANSPARENT DARK AMBER GOLD LUSTER SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0
• TRANSPARENT GOLD AMETHYST SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0
• LACY'S STIFF STUFF
• WHITE ULTRASUEDE
• FIRELINE THREAD 0.006 IN CLEAR
• 1.5-INCH BASE METAL PIN BACK
• E-6000

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Posted by Mana © BeadFeast. All Rights Reserved

The Pink Bow Brooch

For every crazy, over the top piece that I make I try to balance it out with a simpler more restrained piece.

When I was studying fashion at Uni usually the more over the top pieces would get all the attention so we all tried to outdo one another but there is definitely something to be said about simpler things.

I was utterly surprised when this piece out of all the pieces I had made got the most attention between friends and family. I have to say the whole piece was so quick, easy and simple to make, that I was shocked it was evoking any sort of emotion.

 I remember sitting down saying to myself that I wanted to make something simple but I just didn’t want to do a couple of rows around the main cabochon. So once I had the cab glued on my foundation I drew out a bow on the bottom of it and started beading.

The picture in this piece is another Lori Earley painting called “Lee, The Pink Sheep”. The name was a clue as to what colour I should start with and I decided I didn’t want any fuss with this piece so I stuck with pink and black. For just a little bit of sparkle and to define the knot in the bow I used a Hotfix crystal in the middle of the bow.

To finish off the piece I did a did a clean edge using the black hex beads I had used but when I got to the bow part those beads were simply too big and wouldn’t fit so I changed it up to size 15 round seed beads to finish up the edges around the bow. I have to point out that sewing beads to cover up the edges in these narrow corners is not an easy task and it doesn’t always look that clean but I have found out that if I use smaller size beads to finish off the edge they will usually get covered by the larger beads in the last row of the actual bead work so the piece doesn’t look bad at all.

I gifted this piece to my mom. She had asked to use it a couple of times and I thought it was only appropriate for her to have it. But my mom doesn’t live in the US and I really needed pictures of this brooch for my little blog so I would like to thank my lovely friend, Sanaz, for taking these photos for me. She drives me nuts most of the time but I love her to bits. Thank you for helping me out Sanaz!!

LIST OF MATERIALS USED:

• 30x40 OVAL GLASS CABOCHON
• BLACK HEX 2-CUT BEADS SIZE 11/0
• OPAQUE RAINBOW MOCHA DELICA BEADS SIZE 11/0
• OPAQUE BLACK SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0
• SS20 SWAROVSKI HOTFIX CRYSTAL AB
• FIRELINE THREAD 0.006” IN SMOKE
• FIRELINE THREAD 0.006” IN CLEAR
• LACY'S STIFF STUFF
• BLACK ULTRASUEDE
• 1.5 INCH BASE METAL PIN BACK
• E-600 GLUE

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Posted by Mana © BeadFeast. All Rights Reserved

Claudia Brooch

I have been obsessing somewhat over Lori Earley’s drawings and my mom has been asking me for a while to make a brooch for a friend of hers.

My mom understandably wanted something that suited her friend’s style and personality and to be honest girly, hearts and flowery stuff are not my style. I like skulls and leather and creepy art like Michael Hussar’s drawings and apparently I am the only one around here that appreciates that sort of things cause every time I wear one of my pieces someone comments on how scary they are!! Oh well what can you do.

Out of all the pictures I had printed up for my cabochons, “Claudia” was the least cynical and my mom approved of the picture so I started off the beading.

“Claudia” is a graphite on paper sketch so obviously the fact that picture has no colour meant that I didn’t have any colours to try and match my beading to but I wanted to keep the whole thing soft and feminine so I went with the classic silver lined clear beads all the way around the cabochon.

I have to say that a pale cabochon and pale beading did not equal an interesting piece and I didn’t think it would when I was doing it but I was trying to rein myself as much as I could cause this piece wasn’t for me and I tend to go a little crazy with my bead choices sometimes.

In the end I can say I really tried to keep it simple but I just couldn’t leave the piece, as it was cause it was just plain boring and Claudia deserved better.

I fished out all the larger beads I had in the black and grey family and stitched them on top of the beading that I had already done. it brought a little bit more contrast to the piece and it made it all the more tactile .

I did a simple clean edge around the piece and the piece was finished in no more than a couple of hours!!

LIST OF MATERIALS USED:

• 3MM SWAROVSKI PEARL IN PLATINUM
• GUNMETAL SILVER FRINGE BEADS
• 3MM FACETED ROUND BLACK GLASS BEADS FROM THE BEAD GALLERY
• 3MM FACETED ROUND SILVER GLASS BEADS FROM THE BEAD GALLERY
• DELICA GALVANIZED SILVER SIZE 11/0
• SILVER LINED CYRSTAL SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0
• BLACK SWAROVSKI BICONES
• 2MM GOLDSTONE BEADS
• SILVER LINED GREY DELICA BEADS SIZE 15/0
• 1.5 INCH BASE METAL PIN BACK
• LACY’S STIFF STUFF
• GREY ULTRASUEDE
• FIRELINE 0.006 IN CLEAR
• E-6000 GLUE
• CRAFTER’S PICK THE ULTIMATE GLUE

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Posted by Mana © BeadFeast. All Rights Reserved