Some weeks ago, I explained why my blog suddenly seems to be all hand embroidery (my arthritic thumb joint), but also talked about having a plan for bead embroidery.
Now I'm back with the first piece resulting from this plan, but you wouldn't even notice without my saying it because it's just a tad different from my previous pieces.
In the blog post about how my thumb influences my work at the moment, I also mentioned getting myself an embroidery set with a second stand and exchangeable hoops in different sizes.
This made me wonder why I didn't just do my bead embroidery pieces like that, too?
I glued my cabochons on like always, then I put some thinner fabric in the hoop and sewed through both the fabric and my embroidery foundation when making the bezel for the cabs.
Making pendants has always been my favorite and the smallest hoop I can use with the stand isn't that small, so the plan was to work on two pendants and then cut them off together to finish them.
You know what? That actually worked rather well and although it didn't mean my thumb joint could rest completely, I avoided at least some of the movements it hates. Now I would just have to see if the fabric would be thin enough not to mess up my edging.
Spoiler alert - it was.
I'm sure the idea isn't new, I didn't look it up before trying it out, but all that counts for me is that it works.
Here's the first pendant which I have finished now, my muse is still thinking about the other one.
I didn't use a cabochon for this one, but a marble heart. It's really smooth but not shiny and still has kind of a raw, unpolished look to it which I wanted to counterbalance with a smooth look for the bezel, with a dark sparkle for the edge as opposed to the subtle light sparkle of the marble (which doesn't show too well in the pictures).
For the bezel I chose grey seed beads with a light shimmer of gold, blue-grey Delicas for contrast, and a row of tiny silver seed beads, the edging is from black crystals, also with a shimmer of gold, in combination with real hematite rounds and matching seed beads.
This pendant is off. You might not even notice right away if you just give it a quick glance, but if you look closer, you see it.
The stone is asymmetrical and I didn't try to hide that.
So the bezel is asymmetrical as well and also the crystal edge. I had to place the bail so that the pendant would still hang right and the two beads at the top - a button bead and a faceted moonstone - only sit kind of in the center.
The back is a real surprise in its bright berry color. Turned like this, you can also see the asymmetry very clearly.
Well, aren't we all a little "off"? One eye bigger than the other one, one ear a bit higher, one foot larger, or what else there can be, and sometimes there's a surprise on the back ;-)
I hadn't planned it that way from the start, by the way, it just happened by following the stone with the beads, but the more I worked on it, the more I thought that I finally seemed to be embracing assymetry, something I have always been struggling with very much, but haven't given up on. I find it's easier going completely wild with freeform.
Does it still make me a little nervous? It sure does, but I like the idea of someone wondering what is different about this piece and finding out step by step and maybe embracing it, too.
Now I need to find the next step for the other "hoop" piece, so I can finish it.
There's a nagging feeling that I have painted myself into a corner with that one, but miracles happen, so I'm not going to give up hope just yet.