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!  

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. 

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. 

Available!  Leave me a comment Just last week I finished and posted a pendant using one of  Yvonne Irvin-Faus 's quirky fun pieces.  Seems I'm on a roll!  For this one, I decided to go more elaborate with the bail, stitching up a butterfly bail .  They are waaay easier to make than they look.  In fact, when I was on vacation last summer, I stitched up a whole bunch of these.  Which leads me to an idea. If you are stuck inside right now, especially if you can't get the exact materials you'd like in order to start/continue/finish a project, or if you are finding your creativity waning because of stress, try this.  Pick an easy small project like bails and make a bunch of them in various colors.  It doesn't have to be bails.  It doesn't have to be anything fancy.  It doesn't have to be something for a specific project.  JUST MAKE SOMETHING...ANYTHING!  The act of making, of moving your hands, will open your mind and...

Available!  Leave me a comment I love these bright fun pieces by Yvonne Irvin-Faus .  Yvonne has a site you can check out called MyElements by Yvonne .  In fact, I just realized when I went to post this piece that I had made a similar one almost exactly a year ago!  You can see it at the link...it's a bit more elaborate than this one. As always, if you are interested in getting started with bead embroidery, I invite you to download a free copy of my e-book's first chapter, Every Bead Has a Story .  If other forms of beading interest you, please check out the Tutorials tab at the top of the blog.  Since we are all laying low right now, due to the virus, it's a good time to plan and try out a new art form! Copyright 2020 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

SOLD This pendant features a pyrography fox cabochon that I bought from House of the Green Lady on etsy.  I fell in love with him the moment I saw him.  He is only 1 1/2 inches tall and an inch wide, so I wanted to keep the embellishment pretty simple and straightforward.  He has a square stitched bail on the back.    Copyright 2020 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Available!  Leave me a comment I fell in love with this pretty cabochon made by Susana Paredes !  When you have a super-colorful piece like this to work with, it's hard to narrow down to just a few colors for the beadwork, but if you don't, it can end up being really chaotic.  That's ok if that's what you're after.  As for me, I prefer to pick one or two main colors and fill in with neutrals.  At least most of the time! When it came to the wrapped wire beads hanging from the crescent, I added a few more of the cabochon colors, and kept it asymmetrical but balanced.  If you need instruction on making a wrapped loop , there's a tutorial at the link using large gauge wire so you can really see what's being done.     Copyright 2020 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Available!  Leave me a comment I bought this set of polymer clay focals from my friend Mary Anne Williams Knapp of The Cat's Meow !  There's a bit of color-shift that you can't really see in the photos I took unless I show you two close-ups right next to each other.  Suffice it to say that I love this piece!  There were many color directions that I could have gone, but I'm very very satisfied with this one.  The smallest seed beads, size 15/0s, have a purplish cast to them, which is perfect, but funny enough, they are actually a luster cobalt! Copyright 2020 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

SOLD How cute is this guy?  He was made by talented artist Shari Smith McDermott , and I added a raku leaf by my friend Amy Mealey of Xaz Bead Company .  I wish you could see more of the detail on Shari's owl and more of the color flashes on Amy's leaf!  I didn't want to lose any of the owl by bezeling over him, so I used epoxy to attach him to a deep felt backing: a thin piece of black felt over top of a cut out thick piece of felt so that he nestled in.  To do the beaded surround, I followed the same procedure as for this heavy piece, Davy Jones's Lock .  Here are some links to other tutorials you may find helpful: Square stitch bail Chapter 3 of Every Bead Has a Story Butterfly bail Open-center triangular bail 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 2020 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

I thought I'd just show you my latest piece.  I don't have time to write too much about it right this minute, but just wanted to get it out there.  I broke my ankle, the holidays were busy, and I've not gotten much work done since the beginning of December.  This "retirement" thing is starting to actually creep up on me whether I want it or not!! Copyright 2020 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. 

Available!  Leave me a comment Instead of starting with the focal, this time I started with the beadwoven bail !  The one I chose was a previously stitched piece that you can learn more about at the link above and below. Open-centered triangular bail Now, that's not to say that I don't absolutely love the focal!  I do, and I've been saving it for something special.  It's a resin-coated polymer clay piece made by my friend Mary Anne Williams Knapp .  Mary Anne has online trunk shows that you can access through Facebook, but you better move quickly when her work is up for sale!  It gets scooped up with lightning speed.  I used some Miyuki drops on both an inner row and around the edging of this piece, along with some pearls and a lovely little raku bead by Amy Mealey of Xaz Bead Company . My e-book, Some Assembly Required , covers making different types of bezels to enhance both regularly shaped and irregularly shaped cabochons, connecti...