What I'm working on right now

I'm currently making another hair clip, this time a butterfly. I have used a clip art image for the template, transferring it onto stiffened felt with carbon paper. There's challenges in getting the bead placement right even in a straight bead embroidery piece like this!

This one is my current big bling project. At the moment I'm still thinking about how it will work and what components to use. You can see in the photo I have heaps of beads ready to go. I'm just about ready to jump in and get going once I've finished the butterfly.

A Tale of Three Cabochons

I have made or finished three cabochon projects since Christmas, and have had an interesting experience with each of them.

The one on the left is actually half a geode, so it's not technically a cabochon, but let's not quibble :) I bought this geode from Gary Wilson at the Bead and Button Show in 2008, after seeing Laura McCabe wearing a fabulous necklace that she had made out of one. It sat in the drawer for ages, then I decided to try and do something with it. It's since been one of those projects that I pull out and put away again on a regular basis, never happy with what I'm trying. I've gotten to a point where I'm happy with how I've captured the geode, using a combination of peyote stitching and free-form netting. My difficulty is in the embellishment. I've tried several different fringe ideas and various other things, but haven't been happy with any of it. It's wearable as it is now, although very plain, so I'll probably just leave it now. I have another geode in the drawer, so maybe I'll try something more elaborate with that one. It's in projects like this that I really feel my lack of confidence in free-form embellishment - other people would just go for it and turn out something fabulous, but I have trouble visualising what the end result will be. So I have learnt from this project that I need to build confidence in going outside the boundaries.

The cabochon on the right was bought from a BSV member at the 2010 Bead Retreat [beadsociety.com.au]. It's a pretty teardrop shape piece of stone in an interesting shade of purple, with green and gold inclusions - really attractive. Sadly I've botched this one. It currently looks like it would belong on a Bollywood set, but definitely not around my neck! I've decided that the edging is in the wrong beads, and is slightly too much for this stone. I actually really like the way the edging came out - it was one of the technique's in Jamie Cloud Eakin's book Beading with Cabochons, which is one of my favourite beading books. I just used the wrong beads and the edging is too wide for the size of the cabochon. I'll have to unpick this one and start again unfortunately.

I'm actually really happy with the way the middle project came out. Funnily enough, this evolved quite by accident. I decided to join a couple of my fellow BSV committee members in going to the first BSV meeting in Geelong earlier this month. I was told that they were going to be learning spiral rope technique, which I know really well, so I rummaged through the stash and found some beads that I though would go nicely together in a spiral rope. Anyway, I started the rope at the meeting, and really liked the effect. It has copper coloured delicas as the core bead, then two shades of green 15s and a green lined crystal triangle in the outer beads. The triangles seem to lock together really well, making a tight and effective spiral that shows off the copper core very well, so I must remember that for future spirals. Anyway, I had only planned to do a small piece as a sample, but by the end of the meeting I had a length of spiral rope about 15 cms long - too long to unpick! So I decided I had better finish it and then find something to hang off it. I had a rummage around the stash again, and came up with this cabochon, which is another one of the cabs I purchased from Gary Wilson. I had actually completely forgotten about this particular cab, but it goes perfectly with the colours in the spiral rope. I also had several other different types of copper beads, so had some fun with embellishing the cabochon. I particularly like how the outer edge turned out. I sewed down the copper lined crystals first, then ran through them, picking up some 15s and a triangle each time. The bail has been made using herringbone stacks, but I figured out a minor variation on adding embellishment beads in between, which looks very effective.

I suppose being happy with one out of three projects isn't too bad really, and at least I know what's gone wrong with the others. When I get around to re-jigging the Bollywood one I'll post the before and after pictures.

The big bling project

This is the big bling necklace I mentioned in an earlier post - my first major project finished this year. This was the most complicated piece of jewellery I have designed and executed from scratch, particularly in terms of construction. It's not obvious from the photo but the necklace has been shaped to ensure that if fits nicely around the neckline and that all of the components and strands sit flat.

The materials in this necklace include:

• three 27mm Swarovski rivolis (all 'purple haze')
• two 18 mm rivolis
• two 14 mm rivolis
• one triangular crystal
• small Czech dagger beads
• copper delicas
• various seed beads in shades of copper and purple (garnet/amethyst)
• droplet beads, mostly in amethyst
• 2mm garnet round beads that I bought in Bali a few years ago
• Czech faceted rondelles
• Copper Size 8o beads and copper size 15o charlottes.

I started by making all of the components and then figuring out how to put them together. I was actually inspired by a Miriam Haskell necklace in the book 'Fabulous Fakes' by Carol Tanenbaum [http://www.amazon.com/Fabulous-Fakes-Passion-Carole-Tanenbaum/dp/1579652921/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266279989&sr=8-1], which I had borrowed from a friend. My necklace doesn't look much like the one in the book, which was made with pearls, but it gave me the idea to use the rondelles to connect the components.

What did I learn from this project?

1. I had some fun embellishing the rivolis and learnt a lot about what you can and can't do. I will use a different method for connecting dagger beads next time, because I only used one thread and the beads move so much I've already had to mend it a couple of times.
2. If you're connecting pieces it's a good idea to determine connection points and actually add the connector elements while you're doing the initial bezelling and embellishment. If you don't, you run the risk of trying to do too many thread passes through the beads and breaking them. On these components I ended up adding loops at the back and using the loops to secure the connecting strings of beads, rather than connecting them directly to the rivoli bezel.
3. I learnt a lot about shaping a necklace and how each section needs to be different in order to achieve the shape. There are three strands of beads between the front components and the clasp, and each one had to be a different length to get them to sit flat. Even the strings between the components at the front of the necklace had to be different lengths. It was usually only one or two beads each way, but it took a long time to figure out the correct number of beads for each section!


4. I have an unfortunate love of Swarovski crystal, particularly the larger rivolis. I say unfortunate because I love looking at them but not wearing them (except for very rare evenings out), so why I make things with them I really don't know!

I'm very happy with the way this one turned out, even though it's so over the top I may never be game to wear it. I've been toying with the idea of submitting it to the Bead Dreams Competition this year. We'll see ...

Beaded Hair Clip

I just finished this hair clip last night, and am already wearing it. I've tried doing hair clips a couple of times in the past, but the main sticking point has always been that I hated the cheap and nasty barrette clips which were all that was available. Anyway, I finally tracked down a source of the better quality french barrette clips in Australia [http://www.polymerclay.com.au/], and bought several of them to try out some hair clip ideas.
This clip was made using a large Czech glass button I purchased from Cranberry some time ago [http://www.cranberry.net.au/store/index.php]. I always though it was too big for a necklace focal but liked it so much I wanted to try to do something with it. The aim with this design was to create something that was wearable first! I was hoping for a slightly Art Deco look with the bead placement. I had some lovely aqua-coloured beads and crystals which went very well together in this piece, I'm really happy with the way it turned out.
So what did I learn from this project?

1. Don't try to remove the shank from a glass button! This is actually the second button I bought from Cranberry - I broke the first one trying to remove the shank. If you look at the back of this piece you can see the shank sticking out in the middle of the barrette clip - it actually doesn't cause any problems.
2. Be careful with bead choice and placement - in particular avoid heavy beads for a hair clip. You don't want to feel like the back of your head is weighed down by the clip.
3. I had some trouble cutting the backing fabric to go around the barrette clip and will have to practice this more - it really doesn't look very good at the moment.
4. I still need to practice getting things symmetrical. I need to learn to draw out the pattern first onto the base fabric before getting started. My mother always used to say I was like a bull at a gate and she's right - I so often jump in without really thinking things through, then have to figure it out later. It would be a good idea to draw the design and clip placement on to the base fabric before starting stitching, so that everything lines up properly.

I've also learnt that hair clips are a great way to do some beading without committing to months and months of work! This one only took a few nights to make. I'm inspired now to try a few more designs. I think the next one will be a butterfly - I've already printed out a pattern and the next thing is to choose some beads.