Yellow Sunflower Cuff

Last weekend I needed a pick me up from all the snow that is now piled up around me.

I've had this beautiful yellow flower cabochon from Lisa Peters Art. This cabochon reminded me of the sunflowers we grow each summer. However, yellow is a really difficult color for me to incorporate into my pieces so this beautiful cabochon has been waiting to be used. I pulled out my trusty color wheel and decided to pair the yellow cabochon with purple. The color combination provided me with that color pick me up.

I decided to embroider the yellow cabochon with bronze seed beads. I wanted to mimic the feel of flower petals so I added the two rows of fringe beads in bronze and rainbow opaque. The centerpiece is attached to a metal cuff that was covered with genuine purple leather. The underside of the cuff is lined with lavender ultrasuede. You can see more pictures of the cuff here.

If you'd like to see more of Lisa's work, you can find more of her lovely beads, buttons, and cabochons here.

Do I need a vacation?

Not a lot of time today for a long post, but I wanted to share some other new pieces I've finished recently.

The first is a bead embroidered ring made with a handmade cabochon of a sea shell print.

The second is a bead embroidered cuff using another handmade cabochon of a sea shell print.

Do you see a theme here? Or is just me. I think I need a vacation.

Perfect Autumn Day Part 2

Luck was on my side. We got a second beautiful day. With my camera battery now charged, I ventured out to capture some of the beauty.

Inspired by the colors of the season, I pulled out this cabochon that I bought months ago. I personally find working with red and yellow very difficult. I've challenged myself in the past and haven't been happy with the results.

I purchased this cabochon months ago and I have two round ones that match it. It reminded me of a sunflower. I purchased it from Lisa Peters. You can check out more of her beautiful handmade ceramic beads, buttons, pendants, and cabochons at her shop here.

I'm happy with the results so far. This is going to become a bracelet, which I hope to finish this week and will post the results when it done.

Do you have a color that you find difficult to work with? Have you overcome your color issues and how did you do it?

Butterfly Pendants

I recently have been exploring new techniques to add to my work. I was interested in creating some of my own cabochons. After doing a little searching, I decided I wanted to try my hand at creating cabochons with specialized paper and glass. I'll describe how I made these cabochons in another post, but I wanted to share some of the first pieces I completed with these new cabochons.

Here are two butterflies I created with paper, glass, and bead embroidery. They are wonderfully simple, but the pictures under glass are incredibly detailed.

Over the next few days, I'll share other pieces I've completed with these hand made cabochons. I have some more photos to take so that I can prepare these for my etsy shop.

Black and White Cuff

I love this dramatic black and white cuff, but it didn't start that way. When I first started work on it, I was extremely frustrated. I usually work with a larger palate of colors. I wanted to try my hand at working with only black and white. I pulled every black and white bead from my ever growing stash. I had acquired the two quartz stones awhile back. I figured that they would become the centerpiece of a neckpiece or cuff, but would be surrounded by a rainbow of colors. As usual, I didn't have a specific plan when I started the cuff. I arranged the cabochons and started beading. Well, after only a few rows of beads I quickly decided that only black and white was not going to do. I was going to have add another color. Focusing only on the black and white, the cuff had no depth and no character. Gray was the natural choice. The addition of gray gave a pleasing step between the black and white beads. The cuff was also embellished with pearls, shell beads, glass beads, and hematite beads. 

So after, a rather dissatisfying start, I was over the top at the finished piece. It is truly a piece of art to wear. 

You can see more pictures of the cuff at my Etsy site (www.jodihorgan.etsy.com).