Beaded Cabochons – Part 2


    Chatty has mentioned before that she has started making beaded cabochons.

    Here’s a progress report in pictures:

    

    You saw the base layer of three rows of beads on the first three cabochons in  a previous post, but here they are again:

    
    
     Chatty has  now added the second, upper layer of two rows of beaded “picot” on the same three stones:

   

    Here are the other stones she’s been working on:

    
    
   On the left is unichite, in the middle is malachite, and on the right is red jaspar.

    Here they are with their base and upper layers of beads:

    

    Here they all are together, before having their backing cut to size and the suede attached to the back:

    

    The seventh stone (middle left above) is blue goldstone.  

    And here are the four on which Chatty has done “rolled” edges:

    

    All that remains to be done on these four are the hoops at the top, and more decorative work on the bottom of the three oval cabochons. Chatty says "all", but trust her, there is still a lot of work ahead of her.

    Beading is very painstaking, persnickety, time-consuming and occasionally tedious, but it has the advantage of offering immediate gratification, because everything is so pretty from the start, and it only gets better.

    The worst part is attaching the backing to the stones. Chatty has been using suede, which is thick and tough. She has to use pliers to push the needle into and through the suede for each stitch. Also, each piece has to be stitched twice – the first to hold the suede backing to the white backing to which the stone was originally glued, and the second to sew through the 3 layers (there is another layer of white material between the first layer and the third suede layer, for stiffness and strength) to add the final rolled edge. Chatty can’t count the number of times she has stuck herself! She also has quite a collection of bent needles…but Chatty thinks it’s worth it! However, in future, Chatty will be experimenting with a thinner backing, like ultra-suede.

    So far, so good...


Posted by CCC at 5/19/2008 12:53 AM
Categories: crafts, Photos, BEADING

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