It seems to be a while since I posted a blog entry. There's been too much going on with work! Also, I have been reluctant to post any of the pieces I have made for the Johnston Collection exhibition, as I want them to be 'unveiled' there. I am very happy with the way things are going though! I have been able to try out a few new tricks and see how they look.

This piece is one I made about four years ago. I bought the two cabs at the Bead and Button Show from Earthenwood studio [http://www.earthenwoodstudio.com/]. I also bought all of the seed beads at the Show - they were all colours that were unobtainable in Australia at the time, so I was very keen to use them. The cabochon is edged with a double 'ruffle' of picots which include magatamas - my own invention and I still think it looks great. Magatamas are under-rated in my view, they should be used more.

The main thing I initially learnt from making this piece was the variations that can be achieved with herringbone stitch. I used alternating magatamas and size 11o seed beads - a trick I picked up from Laura McCabe [http://www.justletmebead.com/] at the Show. The technique gives you a fantastically textured rope. Also the edging - you can achieve lots of different effects depending on the beads you use.

I subsequently learnt a lot about coated beads and why you shouldn't use them with a bailed pendant! The finish has actually been rubbed off many of the beads in the rope around where the bail generally sits - the friction between the two sets of beads has done this. Some of the beads in the bail have lost their coating too. I was still fairly new to specialty coatings at that stage, and really had no idea that this would happen. If I had a do-over, I would still use the same beads, but I would fix the bail in position, or design the necklace without a bail, so that there was no risk of rubbing. In fact the last few projects I have done, I have done exactly that.

A friend loaned me some rub-on gold embellishing paint, which I tried out, and it has covered the beads which lost their coating, so they aren't so obvious. It will be interesting to see how long the paint lasts. I expect that in the end, I will have to pull the rope apart and re-do it, which is a pain, but I have always liked the necklace so I'd like to salvage it if I can.

So there's the lesson from this piece - don't use beads with fragile coatings in locations where they will suffer a lot of rubbing. The manufacturers aren't joking when they say that the coatings will come off!

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.