Book Review - 'Beading with Cabochons'

'Beading with Cabochons' by Jamie Cloud Eakin. I just got this book, Santa often comes early to our house. It's been out awhile, but I wasn't interested in off-loom stitching then. Now, there are just SO many things I want to try stitching.
The book is filled with eye candy, ideas, inspirations and instructions for a lot of projects. Available on Amazon at a very reasonable price. Don't miss this one.

Cameo Brooch/Necklace

Finished what will be the brooch portion. I really liked how it came out. I decided to do the necklace portion in double St Petersburg chain stitch. The colors for the necklace will match the colors in the fringe. Of course, I don't have enough on hand so I'll have to order those this week.

Cab Bracelet

Here we are. I'm ready to sew it around the metal cuff form. But I have to wait til we go to
town again. I was doing ok, embroidering on the thin leather with a regular needle. But to encase the cuff form, I have to go through two layers of leather and I'm going to need one of those curve,
upholstery needles.
I'm very happy with the way the cuff turned out.

Cuff Bracelet Update - Cab Pt 5

Just an update - I have almost finished the right side embroidery. Just a bit more to fill it all in.
The left side will mirror the right and the center will be fill in also. Then it will be sewn over a 1 3/4" metal cuff bracelet form. It isn't as time consuming as I thought it would be. I've been working on it 10 minutes here and there. I'll have another update soon. I am really pleased with it so far.

Cab Along with Me....Pt 4

And now I have the third stone in place. And I have folded back the leather to fit around the cuff blank. Slightly marking the fold line. When I am finished with the embroidery portion, the two edges of the leather will be whipped stitched together on the underside of the leather. I will only bead embroider on the top portion. More tomorrow.

Cab Along with Me....Pt 3

The second of the large stones is in place, using steps in Part 1 and 2, and the third stone will be in place shortly. We'll fit the leather to the shape of the cuff form next. Then the background is filled in with free form embroidery stitches.

Cab Along with Me.....pt 2

Now I've added 3 rows of peyote stitch with 11/0's seed beads. This row should be as high as the cabochon is thick, so you made need a row more or less depending on the thickness of your
cabs. After the third row of 11/0's seed beads,
I switched to 11/0's delicas, which are slightly smaller. Keep tension tight. After the row of 11/o's delica's, I reduced again with 2 rows of 15/0's. Now the cabochon is securely encased against the leather base.

Cab Along with Me.....

Was that a Perry Como song? Oh, that was Dream Along with Me, sorry.
Our next adventure will be bead embroidery. This will eventually be a
cuff bracelet. I'm working on a lightweight piece of leather. I've outlined
the shapes of the cabochons on the leather and I've started to do the
stitching for the first stone. First, I'm outlining it with 11/0 seed beads.
Since the subsequent rows of beads around the cabochons will be in peyote
stitch, I'll make sure the first row has an even number of beads.