Beading Arts

This is an orthoceras fossil that I picked up at a street market in England, in the Before-Times when we could travel freely!  

Blossoms of the Moonlit Waves   Are they flowers or are they sea creatures? Maybe they are both, as the name suggests! Made from sugilite, charoite, Swarovski crystals, seed beads, and pearls. If you'd like to see all my process shots , visit the link! This was an extremely time-consuming but delightfully fun piece to make.  

Leave a comment to adopt one of my pendants! The focal piece of this necklace is my one of my very favorite metal artists, Jennifer West of Off the Grid Designs .  I just love how this one came out! Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

These two pendants have found their forever homes!  The cute focals were made by my friend Dorothy Supri of Skyline Beads   <3 Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Thistles I love this piece, which features a metal focal and charm by my friend Jennifer West .   Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Available!  Leave me a comment I love this little guy!  The focal piece was made by my friend Dorothy Supri .    Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Blue Floral This pendant has found its forever home, but I have others that are similar! Contact me to adopt one of my pendants The focal is by Shari Smith McDermott , and the little raku bead is by Amy Mealey . Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Available!  Leave a comment Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

I love seashore colors, especially in the summer! Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Looks like Copper may have found its forever home! Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Available!  Leave me a comment First introduced in 2019 ...now looking for it's forever home! Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Available!  Leave me a comment Ammonites are one of my most favorite cabochons to work with.  They are deep, and need extra care to bezel them properly, but they are sooo worth it! Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

This is one of my favorite pieces.  I made it years ago, and it was inspired by my Mother, who has the greenest of green thumbs I've ever known!  I wrote a tutorial to show you the basic steps of how it was conceived and put together.  It combines bead embroidery, beadweaving, and a little bit of stringing.   Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

The Peaceful Fox and The Ghost of the Forest have found their forever home!  I know they will be well cared for.  Please contact me if you are interested in adopting a different pendant <3 Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Andante The idea for this piece started to form in my mind when my husband became involved in restoring an antique player piano. The keys called to me in ways that I couldn't explain. I cried when I thought about the elephants that had been destroyed to make these objects of beauty. My tribute to those majestic animals is to prevent some of those keys from ending up in a landfill.  Note ~ The only ivory that it is currently legal to use in the United States is either ancient fossilized ivory, or old recycled ivory like these keys.  Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Gaea Emerging Wool roving, seed beads, pearls, aventurine, jade, copper  In making Gaea Emerging , I developed a two-layered solution to the problem of stitched-on embellishments getting lost in the texture of the wool roving when felted wool is used as a background. The centerpiece of Gaea Emerging is a CopprClay pendant that I made, fired, and patinated. The organic feel of the piece led to the name.  There are some step-out photos and basic instructions at the link.  Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Ancient Waves  Ammonites, jasper, Swarovski crystals, seed beads, and pearls  Here are some step-out photos of the process at the link :-)  Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin.  All rights reserved.

Dark Lady An antique purse that was well beyond repair provided the steel-cut beads and the chain used for the closure of this recycled bead embroidered necklace. All of the black beads, from the fringe to the smallest glass charlottes are recycled antiques as well. The steel buttons have been attached in such a way that their shanks have been preserved.   Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Orinoco Flow   My daughter pointed out to me that this piece uses several very primitive symbols, like concentric circles and jagged lines, which often represent watering holes and the rivers that connect them. So I picked Orinoco Flow as the name. It has turquoise, amazonite, and pearls, and gold wire along with the glass beads.  If you'd like to see a couple of process shots , visit the link!  Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Midnight at the Oasis  "It's midnight at the oasis, send your camel to bed," sang the incomparable Maria Muldaur. My friends and I used to howl with laughter as we sang along! Now I find myself nostalgic for the song if you can believe it.  This bead embroidery necklace uses complicated clusters of graduated stacks of seed beads to create the texture. The photograph just doesn't show how dimensional it is. If you'd like to see all my process shots, there's a three-part post on my blog that starts at the link.  Copyright 2020 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved.

Phoebe Hello friends! I haven't had time to work on new pieces since I'm still running a food pantry and hot meals program during the Time of Covid. So I thought I'd take a bit of a trip down memory lane and share some of my older pieces again. I hope you don't mind. This one is called Phoebe . She is named for Saturn's ice moon, which was in turn named for a Titan of Greek mythology.   Copyright 2021 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved.