Raku bead embroidered pendant

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Once more, I have combined pieces by the talented Amy Mealey and Jennifer West!  I just love the look of raku and metal together, don't you?  I was tempted to use mostly turquoise colors again on this one, but I seem to be stitching a lot of those lately, so it seemed to be time for a change :-)

The focal is bezeled with peyote stitch and a final row of right angle weave (RAW).  The bail is one of the ones I stitched on vacation.  You can see more of them and get links to the instructions at the link above. 

Copyright 2019 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Beadwoven bails for pendants

You know that most of the time, I like to just stitch a square stitch loop onto the back of my bead embroidered pendants, like the one shown below:

If it's set down low enough, it doesn't show on the front, and if you want it to show, you can set it up higher or even weave it off of the edging brick stitch row on your piece.  Instructions for stitching these can be found in chapter 3 of my e-book Every Bead Has a Story.  But today, I want to look at some other forms of bails!

While I was on vacation recently, I took along just enough beads to stitch up these triangular (and one cylindrical) bails.  Here are some sources for the instructions for these fancier bails:

How to make beaded beads with brick stitch

Shaped Beadwork by Diane Fitzgerald (book review and link)
Page 20 - triangle
Page 25 - elongated triangle

Shaped Beadwork and Beyond by Diane Fitzgerald (book review and link)
Page 40 and 45 - butterfly triangle
 

Copyright 2019 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

Turquoise bead embroidered pendant

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I'm still besotted with the color turquoise, which seems to happen on a fairly regular basis, especially in the Summer!  The beautiful focal and the metal ring are the work of my friend Jennifer West.  The pretty raku bead just above the ring is by Amy Mealey.  I love Amy's and Jen's work together, and you might have noticed that I often combine them.   

This piece is deceptively simple, with a few extra embellishments to make it special.  I stitched the bezel with size 11/0 seed beads in peyote stitch and topped it with size 15/0 seed beads in right angle weave.  Since the count worked out properly, I was able to go back and stitch small drops between each pair of "up" beads in the last size 11/0 row.  To continue that theme, I stitched a butterfly style bail and edged it with the same drops.  The beadwoven bail works best if stitched with Delicas or other cylindrical beads.  Fortunately for me, I had a pretty good match for the Czech seed beads! You can find instructions for making this bail in Diane Fitzgerald's wonderful book, Shaped Beadwork and Beyond (my review is at the link).  In fact, the blue star that you see on the cover is made from the links that fold to make the bail!

Copyright 2019 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

By the sea, by the sea...a mermaid bead embroidered pendant

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Here is another mermaid focal that I fell in love with, made by my friend Sheri Mallery.  I decided that she would be the centerpiece of my next pendant.  I kept the back stitching fairly simple, just adding a few accent pearls and cup chain.  The bezel also has just a few small pearly embellishments.  But then I got to the fringe...!!

Pearls, dyed pearls, cup chain, fringe drops.  I feel like she's guarding her treasure!

My e-book Some Assembly Required covers many different styles of fringe and other beautiful finishing techniques.

Copyright 2019 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Blue floral bead embroidered pendant

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SOLD!!

This new pendant combines a polymer clay focal by Shari Smith McDermott with a raku bead by Amy Mealey.  Shari's cabochons are black polymer clay that she paints.  The ones I bought have an iridescent sheen that is hard to appreciate in photos, while Amy's raku beads are the perfect accompaniments!

Step-by-step instructions for putting together a bead embroidered piece, including back stitch, edging brick stitch, and stack stitch can be found in the free first chapter of my e-book Every Bead Has a Story.  Chapter two has instructions for stitching a peyote stitch bezel, and Chapter three teaches the square stitch bail.  Additional chapters focus on altered surfaces, dimensional beading, found objects and unusual materials, and integrating bead embroidery with other fiber arts.

Copyright 2019 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Copper + green bead embroidered pendant

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I love these polymer clay and resin cabochons by Mary Anne Williams Knapp.  I buy them from her in her online trunk shows.  They are not terribly deep, so it doesn't take many rows to bezel them and get down to the fun parts of embellishing!  I used edging brick stitch all around the piece and then added small drop beads along the top and short stack stitches and dagger beads for fringe along the rest.

If you want to learn how to make bead embroidered pieces, I show you how to do it with over-sized beads and lots of pictures in the free first chapter of my e-book Every Bead Has a Story.  There are also free instructions there for back stitch, edging brick stitch, and more.

Copyright 2019 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Green bead embroidered pendant with a tree

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SOLD!!

I just can't get enough of these metal clay focals that my friend Jennifer West makes!  You can find beauties of your own by visiting Off the Grid Designs, or find Jennifer on facebook...she frequently sells through online trunk sales there.

Anyway, I had exactly ONE of these cute little mother-of-pearl leaves left from another project, and when my client said she liked earthy green tones, it just seemed perfect.  She is also petite, so I had to restrain myself from over-embellishing :-)

If you'd like to make one of these bead embroidered pieces, instruction can be found in Every Bead Has a Story, where the first chapter is free to download.

Copyright 2019 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.