Beading Arts

Available!  Leave me a comment SOLD!! This may be my favorite piece yet!  I wore it over the weekend and received many compliments, especially on the beauty of the focal piece that Jennifer West made. One little trick that I'll point out to you is how I back stitch around a fresh water pearl when I want the flow of beads to continue as smoothly as possible.  When I add the last row of back stitching and the pearls are jutting into that row, I switch from size 11/0 to size 15/0 seed beads.  That means having a pretty big stash of beads, but I learned long ago that it's good to have a color you like in every size possible!  The color palette led me to use one of Amy Mealey's raku beads as a dangle at the bottom. Further instruction on making bead embroidered pieces can be found in Every Bead Has a Story , where the first chapter is free to download.  The book as a whole covers all the different stitches I use, the methods for attaching the backing, bezel and

Yvonne Irvin-Faus makes these really fun focal pieces, and I just had to scoop up a few of them at her last online trunk show.  I wanted to add a few more dimensional elements in order to keep with the playful vibe of the focal, so I added some size 6/0 seed beads in short stacks, a few cute little asterisk beads that Yvonne included in my package just for fun, and some areas of drop beads around the edges.  With so many colors to choose from in the focal, it was a delight to stitch this one up! 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.

Just finished!  My newest pendant combines a polymer clay focal by Shari Smith McDermott with some raku beads by Amy Mealey .  I may have a hard time selling this one!  Shari makes these crazy-pretty focals from black polymer clay that she then paints.  The ones I bought have an iridescent sheen that is hard to appreciate in photos.  Amy's raku beads are the perfect things to acccompany it! Since the whole thing got a little crazy to begin with, I decided to spice up the edges a bit with some drop beads as well as the usual stack stitched.  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

I have been interested in raku work for quite some time, but only recently found a maker of beads and cabochons that I could really envision in my bead embroidered pieces.  The focal and the two large beads in Moonlight were made by Amy Mealey of Xaz Bead Company .  I was blessed to be able to scoop up quite a few of Amy's pieces during a recent online trunk show.    The gold and coppery flashes of raku along with the purple and teal glazes are the colors that I love the best.  I made sure that I bought pieces in other color combos too, though!  It wasn't hard...all of Amy's work is great.  Since the beads are so eye-catching on their own, I kept the embroidery very simple, with a slightly decorated peyote bezel, lots of back stitch, and some double bead stacks.  The edges are all finished with edging brick stitch, stack stitches on the upper 3/4s, and strands of seed beads leading to a dangling raku bead on the bottom 1/4.  The back has the usual square stitch b

Available And yet more pendants!  When will it stop?  No time soon, I hope :-) The center is another of the beautiful designs I bought from Jennifer West during her trunk show.  I just love her work so much, and each unique piece is inspiring me to think of a different bead design to show it off.  I really enjoyed stitching up the bezel for this one...do you see the little beaded "mountain peaks" at the bottom of the cabochon?  The piece had a hole in it, which was just begging to be filled by a pearl "moon". 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