Lady with Dark Hair Pearl Necklace

Can you believe the weekend is over? I spent the whole of Saturday waiting for a package that never arrived and then after doing my weekly shopping I decided to go through my scrapbooking supplies and see what I could get rid off. Suffice it to say that by the time I looked through just half the stuff I had I was a little bit ashamed of myself for spending that much money on things that I don’t use. I love paper but I am no scrapbooker .I think I need to find a way of selling all the dies and punches and stamps I have accumulated in the past year. There is no point in them just sitting in drawers.

But before the weekend is over I want to at least get one post finished in order to achieve one positive thing. So this post is about one of my earlier pieces, which means it was done roughly 4-5 months ago when I was in my resin cabochon-making phase.
 
There are a few setbacks to these resin cabochons. First of all it takes a long time for them to get made and you never know if the finished product is going to come out perfect (without pesky air bubbles or watermarks) until it is all done and over. Another thing that can go wrong with the cabochons is the thickness of it.

For my pieces I used to do a thin layer, put the picture in let it cure for 12 hours and then add a layer of black. But after a couple of uses my molds became a bit lopsided so some of the cabochons were thicker on one side and thinner on the other even though I tried to get it as level as possible. This means that when it comes to bezeling the piece it would look weird. And no matter how much I sanded the piece I could never get it completely even which is why I ultimately switched to clear domes.

This resin cabochon was made using a painting by Harrison Fisher titled “lady with dark hair”. The cab that I had made was too thick so I had to come up with a way of covering the sides and at this point I was only doing stacked bezeling and hadn’t learnt the how to do peyote stitch bezel .so after the initial two stacked rows I decided to add the one thing I go to when I can’t find a bead that works: pearls.

I went through the size 15/0 beads and came out ever 8 beads to add a 2mm pearl stacked with a size 15/seed bead. Once I had gone all around the piece I only had to go through one of the size 15/0 beads on top of a pearl and start adding size 15/0 beads to close the gap between the beads and form a bezel around the cabochon.
 
After I was done with the main piece I made two other smaller pieces to match the main piece and I just had to connect everything together. I made a simple chain with the beads and pearls that I had used in the main pieces and attached a spring clasp. Unfortunately I didn’t know how to attach clasps back then and you can see that I have gone around the loop of the clasp with thread a few times to secure it on and I don’t like that I can see the thread .so next time I go back home to visit my parents I have take this necklace from my mom and fix the clasp issues.

LIST OF MATERIALS USED:

• 2mm WHITE PEARLS
• 3mm WHITE PEARLS
• 5mm WHITE PEARLS
• 18mm JET BLACK ROUND CABOCHONS
•  GOLD SAUCER SHAPED RIBBED SPACER BEADS
• TEARDROP VINTAGE PEARL
• 2mm BROWN GOLDSTONE BEADS
• METALLIC KHAKI BROWN SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0
• METALLIC BROWN SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0
• METALLIC LIGHT BRONZE SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0
• ANTIQUE COPPER SPRING CLASP

• FIRELINE THREAD 0.006” IN SMOKE GREY
• LACY’S STIFF STUFF
• BLACK ULTRASUEDE
•  E-6000 GLUE
•  CRAFTER’S PICK THE ULTIMATE GLUE

---

Posted by Mana © BeadFeast. All Rights Reserved

Alphonse Mucha Ruby Brooch

Writing about pieces that were done a few months back has proved to be rather a challenge. I have discovered that my memory is not as good as I think it was and recalling some of the details of how I made these earlier pieces is proving rather difficult! It’s a good thing I am writing about these pieces now rather than later. I am guessing in a few months I would have forgotten that I had even made some of these pieces! :D

In this piece I broke away from just beading around the cabochon and ventured into actually beading a specific pattern around a piece.

The resin cabochon is a picture of Alphonse Mucha’s Ruby painting .if you look at the actual painting you can see that there are these V shaped tile works behind her head. Taking some inspiration from that I started looking for patterns online, I specifically started looking at Celtic designs since some of the elements of these types of designs creep into each other.

I tried transferring the Celtic designs on to the Lacy’s stiff stuff with a carbon paper but the results were not that great, I could just get a faint line on my backing, which wasn’t enough to help serve as a guide. I ended up putting the backing against the light and tracing the lines with a pen.

For this piece I started with the outside lines first (after the bezel work was done of course). When I started the beading I could see that the lines I had drawn were not all the same length and were not completely symmetrical and I tried to compensate for that by being as precise as I could by counting the beads I was using on each line and just trying to get the shape as symmetrical as possible without relying too much on the pattern I had drawn.

When the time came to fill up the empty spaces I knew that if I chose to do the 2-bead backstitch, the fact that the spaces were not all of the same size would just be magnified so after consulting the Dimensional Bead Embroidery book I decided to give the picot stitch a try. I mentioned in an earlier post that I am not a huge fan of this stitch cause I am not so much into the texture it creates, however for filling up small spaces it is perfect.

I wish I remembered how I actually finished the back of this piece since I was actually able to cover the pin with Ultrasuede in this piece. When I did my romance brooch, I used the same pin back with bail for that piece but I wasn’t able to figure out how I had attached the pin back to this pieces and cover it so  I ended up sewing the bail on top of the Ultrasuede which is not something I usually like to do!

LIST OF MATERIALS USED:

• METALLIC BURGUNDY BROWN SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0 
• OPAQUE CREAM LUSTER SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0
• FIRELINE THREAD 0.006" IN SMOKE
• 1.25” PIN BACK WITH BAIL
• LACY'S STIFF STUFF
• E-6000

---

Posted by Mana © BeadFeast. All Rights Reserved

Portrait of Ira P Necklace

I have mentioned I am going back and posting my earlier pieces now that I have photos of them to share.The piece here marks my first ever attempt at making a necklace. I had made pendant like stuff but this is the first complete necklace .

I am not so much into ultra feminine pieces , I like things a little bit more edgy and to be honest the only reason I chose this Tamara de Lempicka picture was because I had a good lot of red stones and beads that would work with this piece and I was still trying to figure out my own style of doing things.

Looking back my earlier pieces I can see how simple they are but I also remember how hard they were for me to figure out at that point. The component making part was ok because I had some practice with the beading part but conneting the pieces together and making it into a functional piece was a totally different story ,it still is to be honest. I still struggle with attaching clasps and such and if I could find a class that taught the basics of jewelry making that worked with my schedule I would be the first to sign up!

This piece, apart from from the resin cabochon with the Tamara de Lempicka picture , uses two ruby red paua shell cabochons. After finishing off the components ,came the dreaded time of attaching everything together.

I believe I strung on the different beads a hundred different ways and in different sequences in order to get them the right length and have them lay in the way I was looking for. I am probably exaggerating by saying it took a hundred tries but it sure felt like it! It was enough to put me off trying to make another necklace for a while , this might explain why I have only made a handful of necklaces since I started beading.

When the stringing part was finished  came the next obstacle! Attaching the clasp! I went through the loop of the clasp with my thread a couple of times and just went down through the strung beads until I got to the first beaded component where I went through the beads with my string to make it as secure as possible. It was only a week or so back  when I was looking for a better way of attachhing clasps and looking at how other beaders are attaching their clasps that I was finally able to figure that there was a better, cleaner way of attaching clasps!! Oh well at least I know what to do from now on! :D

LIST OF MATERIALS USED:

• 1 1/8” INCH RESIN CABOCHON
• 15MM RUBY PAUA CABOCHON
• 3x4MM FACETED RUBY GLASS BEADS
• 6MM RUBY FIRE POLISHED GLASS BEADS
• JET BLACK SWAROVSKI BICONE
• SILVER LINED MAHOGANY SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0
• OPAQUE BLACK SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0
• OPAQUE BLACK SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0
• SILVER LINED GARNED SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0
• GOLD METAL ROUND SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0
• WILDFIRE THREAD
• LACY'S STIFF STUFF
• BLACK ULTRA SUEDE
• E-600 GLUE

---

Posted by Mana © BeadFeast. All Rights Reserved

Faux Dichroic Necklace

I have finally been able to get my hands on pictures of my earlier pieces. Earlier this year my mom came to stay with me for a while to take care of me while I was recovering from surgery and any piece I made during that time that she expressed any interest in I would give to her, so I don’t have access to them with us living on two different continents and all.

But I was able to convince my photographer friend, Sanaz, to take pictures of the pieces saying it would be good practice for her as well: D

Before I started doing beading I went through a resin and clay phase. After starting bead embroidery I started using clay and resin for making cabochon. I decided early on against clay cabochon as I just didn’t like the effect and glazing them was such a messy process that I gave up, but resin I like, except for the wait time.

Before I started putting pictures in resin, I started with glitter and then moved on to making these faux dichroic pieces.  Dichroic glass pieces are very beautiful but I haven’t been able to find them anywhere in shops. I am a bit hesitant to order these types of patterned cabochon online because the pieces are very different from each other, the picture on the website can be nothing like what you will end up getting. For this sort of cabochon I would rather buy them in person to choose the ones I like. Since I couldn’t find any I made the resin version.

The concept of this piece was to practice the bezel work around the cabochon. After gluing the resin cabochon on I sewed on a row of glass beads with a seed bead in between each in order to allow for me to pass the needle through for the next step, which was adding the gold seed beads. I added 7 size 15/0 seed beads onto my needle and went through each of the size 11/0 seed beads I had sewn in between the larger glass beads. After this stage was finished all that was left to do was to close the work, which was done by putting 4 size 15/0 seed beads on to the needle and sewing through the middle gold seed bead, and pull tight.

Had I not run out of pin backs this piece was destined to become another brooch but since I had, it was decided it would be best if I made this into a necklace.

I didn’t have any necklace making components such as clasps and other things so this had to be something I could slide on a chain or ribbon or cord.

I made some loops on the top to allow for a cord or chain to go through and finished off the edge by doing a picot type edge while using a larger rondelle bead rather than just seed beads.

LIST OF MATERIALS USED:

• 3x6 FACETED OVAL GLASS AQUA
• 3x4MM FACETED RONDELLE SAPPHIRE GLASS BEADS
• TRANSPARENT SAPPHIRE SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0
• GOLD METAL ROUND SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0 
• FIRELINE THREAD 0.006” IN SMOKE GREY
• LACY'S STIFF STUFF
• BLACK ULTRASUEDE
•  E-6000 GLUE

---

Posted by Mana © BeadFeast. All Rights Reserved

Red Rose Shoe Clips

This is going to be a quick post about another pair shoe clips.

In my last post I mentioned that my mom had chosen another set of cabochon for me to turn into shoe clips for her and these are what I came up with.

This pair is a second of three shoe clip pairs that I have made. I tried to use beads that complemented the red and black cabochon but just using black and red was proving to be a little tedious so I decided to use some gold in the piece to break it up a bit.

I think this is good example to show how different the same pair of shoes can look by using different shoe clips, with these things you can get more use out of plain shoes and also the good thing with these clips is that they are secure enough to be worn on garments so they can be used as brooches but you would need to clasp them on to the edge of something like a pocket.

The only thing I would have done differently if I were doing this piece now would have been to use the last row of crystal beads on the edge instead of finishing off the edge with black seed beads .it’s a waste of beads as they are covered by the bigger crystals and I wasn’t planning on doing anything to the edge of the piece anyway  but I guess this is what experimenting is all about: Learning!!

LIST OF MATERIALS USED:

• RED AND BLACK ROSE RESIN CABOCHON
• 3x4 OPAQUE BLACK FACETED GLASS BEADS FROM THE BEAD GALLERY
• SILVER LINED MAHOGANY SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0
• SILVER-LINED MATTE DARK RUBY RED SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0
• METALLIC RAINBOW NICKLE PLATED GOLDED DELICAS SIZE 15/0
• GOLD METAL ROUND SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0
• OPAQUE BLACK SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0
• LACY’S STIFF STUFF
• BLACK ULTRASUEDE
• FIRELINE 0.006 IN SMOKE
• E-6000 GLUE
• CRAFTER’S PICK THE ULTIMATE GLUE

---

Posted by Mana © BeadFeast. All Rights Reserved

Gold Glitter Brooch

When I made my silver brooch I couldn’t not make a gold one!!! I mean logic dictated that I should !!:D

I think one of my main issues is that I want to use every single type of bead that I have in every piece that I do, I just can’t help it .I can’t seem to be able edit myself sometimes so I did go a little bit crazy wanting to really use these 6mm pyrite beads that I had gotten that I think are just the bomb but firstly I really did not think that 6mm would be that huge (trust me these are) and secondly they are quite heavy.

I sewed them on but they just didn’t work. So I just had to take them off.

 I played around with some other beads I think I just thought I had to keep adding but nothing worked so I conceded to leaving the piece be after the rows of pearls. Which is a good thing .if I am unable to edit myself then I am glad that my limited variety of beads did the editing for me.

The brooch is very simple. It’s a gold glitter resin cabochon, set in a white and gold bezel followed by two rows of pearls.

I did a sunshine edge around the piece just in case I wanted to add an edging or hang some fringes from the piece but I haven’t gotten around to doing that. I might do a white and gold picot edge just to add a bit of golden accent to the edge to mirror what is going on in the middle, if I do I will update this post with new pictures. But for now I hope you can enjoy this piece.

List of materials used

•                MATSUNO OPAQUE WHITE BEADS NO 743

•                MATSUNO METALLIC GOLD SEAD BEADS NO 561

•                3MM WHITE PEARLS

•                4MM WHITE PEARLS

•                OPAQUE CREAM LUSTER SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0

•                SILVER LINED TRANSPARENT LIGHT AMBER SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0

•                BLACK ULTRASUEDE

•                1.5 INCH BASE METAL PIN BACK

•                FIRELINE 0.006 THREAD IN CLEAR

•                LACY'S STIFF STUFF

•                E-600 GLUE

Grace Kelly Brooch

When I was a little girl I though that Grace Kelly and Vivien Leigh were the most beautiful women in the world. I still think they are. There is just something about the classic movie stars that is, well classic!

I had watched a couple of Grace Kelly movies and I was so fascinated by her. She was beautiful, ladylike, and soft-spoken and the stories my mom told me about her becoming an actual princess just cemented her status as the perfect woman in my young mind. So much so that I had to saved up all my allowances for five months to buy a set of stamps with her wedding pictures on it from my brother!! I think he overpriced them but they were so worth it to me, I just had to have them!

My resin piece was a bit on the thicker side and no matter how much I sanded it, it still looked thick and I was anxious that if I sanded it too much it would get lopsided and would never get completely flat. I chose to stop and just make the bezel a little bit taller to cover the sized of the cab. I did a base row of size 11 seed beads around the base of the cabochon and because I wasn’t going to do a peyote stitch, I didn’t pay attention to how many seed beads I had around the base row. I came through one of the base beads and strung on three size 11 seed beads followed by one size 15 seed bead and then another three size 11 seed beads. So seven beads in total and then skipped four beads on the base row and went through the fifth bead. I continued this pattern all the way around until I got to where I had started.

I had to adjust the number of beads I skipped on the base row in couple of instances to make the bezel look more uniform. I guess if the number of beads I had in my base row was a multiple of four I wouldn’t have to make the adjustments but it wasn’t so adjustments had to be made. Finally in order to close in all the loops around the cab and finish off the bezel I strung on five size 15 seed beads and sewed it through the single size 15 seed bead that I had in the middle of the bezel loops. When all the beads were strung, I pulled the thread tight and the bezel closed up around the cabochon quite nicely.

Up until this point I had only done clean edges to finish off my works but in this work I set out to try the sunshine edge that I had just discovered in my new book. Getting the first couple of beads on and connecting the last bead to the first bead was a bit of a struggle but the rest of it was actually quite easy.

To finish off the edge I sewed on  4mm faceted glass beads topped with the size 15 beads I had used throughout the piece all the way around the beading.

LIST OF MATERIALS USED:

• HEMATITE GREY METALLIC SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0
• SILVER SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0
• METALIC DARK SILVER SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0  
• 4MM FACETED SILVER CRYSTAL BEADS BY BEAD GALLERY FROM MICHAELS
•  FIRELINE THREAD 0.006” IN CLEAR
•  LACY'S STIFF STUFF
•  BLACK ULTRASUEDE
• 1.5 INCH BASE METAL PIN BACK
•  E-600 GLUE

---

Posted by Mana © BeadFeast. All Rights Reserved

Young Girl Reading: Jean Honore Fragonard

One of the hardest parts when making the resin cabochons for me was finding pictures to put into the resin. I looked through a bunch of magazines and books and websites to find paintings that I thought I could work with. My mom suggested this painting to me.

The painting is called Young Girl Reading by Jean Honore Fragonard. My mom had painted a copy of this painting and it hung on a wall in our house when I was very young. And maybe looking at this painting day in and day out is the reason why I love reading so much .I have to have a stack of books by the side of my bed and whenever that stack gets low I go into a state of panic and need to find some good books to read.

I took cue from the colours in the painting and tried to mimic them best as I could with the beads that I had. The girl is wearing what looks like a yellow taffeta dress so to continue on the rich feeling of the painting I went along with a gold and red bezel around the cab .I have to say the last row of size 15 gold seed beads are my favorite beads that I have gotten so far. They are tiny, perfectly uniform, and very round and look absolutely gorgeous and that is reflected in the price of them.

The gold flowery looking beads around the cabochon was something my mom had bought me ages ago for my work when I was in Uni and I never used them but I thought this was the perfect opportunity to incorporate them in a piece. I did a stacked stitch with the flowery gold beads and a size 15 gold seed beads around the cab. But before doing so I used a yellow marker to colour the Lacy’s stiff stuff foundation so that it would blend in more with the beads and so that the white wouldn’t poke through too much through the gaps.

I was going to add more beads around the work but nothing worked and I think if I had wanted the piece to be bigger I should have used the seed beads before adding the stacked row. But in order to just add in a little bit more width to the piece I went along with bigger beads to finish off the edge than my normal size 15 seed beads. In this case I alternated between the large gold beads and some faux pearls from an old necklace that I had never used .I was afraid that using alternating beads would be a problem and that I might end up with two beads of the same kind next to each other but the beads went around the piece perfectly without me having to readjust them. I am quite grateful for that :D!!

LIST OF MATERIALS USED:

• GOLD METAL ROUND SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0
• DARK SILVER-LINED GOLD SIZE 11/0
• SILVER LINED MATTE DARK RUBY RED SEED BEADS SIZE 11/0
• GOLD METAL ROUND SEED BEADS SIZE 15/0
• 2MM WHITE PEARLS
• 3MM CORRUGATED SAUCER BEADS
•  FIRELINE THREAD 0.006” IN CLEAR
•  LACY'S STIFF STUFF
•  BLACK ULTRASUEDE
• 1.5 INCH BASE METAL PIN BACK
•  E-600 GLUE

---

Posted by Mana © BeadFeast. All Rights Reserved