It is easy to explore bead embroidery when you just focus on a simple project. I chose cameo imitations to make elegant pendants using different embroidery techniques.
See first pendant story here.
Exploration of Bead Embroidery Techniques. Cameo Pendant II
My idea for the second cameo pendant to see how several natural tones of shell colors will play together in one bead embroidery design. The pointy edge technique was another reason to complete it.
Problems and Solutions
This particular cameo is not a real carving. It is an imitation. The sides of this cabochon are rather uneven. To hide this I decided to build little “bridges” connecting a round of stitched beads near the cameo with round of beads slightly away from it. This is only possible when all beads in rounds are stitched. To make the mathematical environment grammatically correct, two rounds that you will decided to connect have to have a repeating number of beads in one round geometrically related to chosen repeating number of beads in the other. But who is that organized? Not me, obviously. Since I decided to make “bridges” only after I completed these rounds and noticed how the uneven edges still show through the design, the mathematician in me lost the sense of reality. I had to position and adjust these “bridges” visually. They are far from perfect but I am still happy with my engineering experience.
Colors
Subtle and warm tones of off-white and shell shades are incredibly attractive to me. I think these colors used in jewelry or clothes makes a woman more feminine, her character seen softer and her personality perceived rather romantic. Some of the beads I have had used in Winter Medallion. I did not get tired of them.
Edge
My initial idea of the edge of this pendant was leaning more towards basic and boring Sunshine edge. I just wanted to wear this pendant once in a while and never count on making an impression. However, during stitching rounds of silky and opaque light color seed beads, I suddenly saw that these colors simply remind me of an old fashion lace. Then I decided to finish the edge of the pendant using Crown Points technique described in Dimensional Bead Embroidery by Jamie Cloud Eakin’s book. If you have this book, you can see I did not achieve the same result, but only because I decided not to.
When I finished stitching the last step in the description I saw that if I follow the instructions I reveal too much thread. The visible thread usually bother me and often makes me restructure, redesign or give up, therefore I had to omit this step.
Cameo
I would wear this cameo during summer for casual outings. Well, I don’t think I can wait that long. Cream white silk shirt, beige knit top or any pastel color dress will look good with it even in winter.
