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 bail for hanging. This is a heavy pendant, so I stitched right through all the layers to anchor the bail, hiding the stitches on top in the beadwork.
Further instruction on making bead embroidered pieces 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.
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