Once I decide which cab I'm going to work with, I glue it down onto the Stiff Stuff. Then, after I've picked out the color of Delica with which to make the peyote stitch bezel, it's a matter of doing beaded backstitch around the entire cab. In this case, that took quite a while:
Ya see all those teeny, tiny little beads? Yeah, I stitch them on two at a time. I find that it works better than stitching them in threes or fours when I'm doing a peyote bezel, because after you complete the first row and pass your needle through the very first bead you picked up, all the beads are in the perfect position for the peyote stitch - the beads can move exactly the way they should, and that makes the bezel tight and neat.
After the first row has been stitched down, I can start working the rest of the bezel. Sometimes, like in the case with this cabochon, when that first row seems to take forever, I keep reminding myself that it's actually the first two rows that I'm laying down.
The last row of the bezel is usually done with size 15 beads, and in this case, I chose a gold-plated bead to bring out some of the little gold accents on the cab. This is one of my favorites in the last batch that I bought from Lisa earlier this year, and as I was working on it, the perfect name came to mind: The Philosopher. (Admittedly, I was watching Terry Jones' "Medieval Lives" series at the time, and just happened to be watching the episode of the same name.) But it fits, doesn't it?
All in all, it took me almost three hours to get this far in the process. Lucky for me, Colden had a good, long nap that day!
1 comment:
One day I would like to learn how to do this.. I wonder if I would change the colors, or the way I create cabs if I could see the finished product with seed beads in my mind..
I love your blog post Jennifer.. Thank you so sweet!
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