Beaded Cabochon Pendant

I have this beaded cabochon pendant in my UFO pile since August 2013 that I so badly wanted to complete but I couldn't because I had misplaced the beads. If you're a beader, you will know that once you lose your beads you are totally screwed. Going back to the shop to get more supplies will not guarantee you will be able find the exact same beads. I didn't go back to the shop to buy more beads because that would have been a waste of money. Plus, the beads were somewhere in my home. I just had to find them.

Recently, I opened a brown envelope in my cabinet which I had thought contained some cards. As it turned out, my beads were in there! Don't ask me how or why. In my home, things do disappear mysteriously. Recently, I lost a newly opened bag of oatmeal porridge. I still haven't found it. Once I found hub's socks in the rice cooker. He had no recollection of putting them in the rice cooker. Hubs and I constantly lose our glasses as well. Luckily our daughter is very good at finding our glasses for us.

This morning I decided to finish off the pendant. This pendant is a lot of work. You start by choosing a stone.

What do you think of this big ass stone I chose? It's not heavy despite the size. I really like the colour. Don't ask me what the stone is. I have zero knowledge of stones.

Two important supplies are stiff stuff (the white one) and suede. You glue the stone to the stiff stuff using E6000 which is a very strong but toxi glue. Once dried the stone will never come off. Next, you sew beads surrounding the stone onto the stiff stuff. In case you're wondering what stiff stuff is. It's just very stiff interfacing but your needles are able to pierce through.

I sewed a total of 2 rounds of beads round the stone onto the stiff stuff.

The stiff stuff is trimmed leaving enough room for another round of beads.

To cover up the white back, suede is cut out and sewn to the stiff stuff via another round of beads. Lastly you add the borders. Here's where you can go crazy and sew all kinds of embellished borders but I like it simple. Once the borders are done, the stone is completed. The last thing to do is the fringes. I had already completed one line of fringe which I thought was not given careful consideration. I wished I had placed the different beads in a more logical sequence. Anyway it was too hard to undo so I decided to carry on and just make do.

These are the beads I used. The crystals and drops were too ridiculously expensive.

I used nymo thread which I utterly hate because they fray so easily. But nymo has such a vast range of colours that I managed to find one which matched my pendant perfectly. I used thread heaven instead of beeswax to condition the thread simply because I can't stand the smell of beeswax. I think beeswax does the job better.

Here's the completed pendant. This was the best combination I could come up with. If I were to redo this all over again, I would either remove the first crystal or move it further down.

This is the necklace that I am supposed to make to go with the pendant. I am using size 11 seed beads which are small so it will take me many hours before it is completed. I want to say this. I will never use size 11 seed beads to make this spiral necklace again.

I think the pendant looks good on a metallic chain. This is probably how I will wear it.

 

What do you think? I really like this pendant despite all the flaws I can see. I will wear it the next time I get invited to the Oscars.