A celebration of Embellished Cabochons

I had planned to be writing a completely different post, but that one is going to be a little delayed. I haven’t had a lot of time for beading recently as life outside beads has been taking over, so I was thrilled this week to receive two emails from a very talented beader in Bavaria. She has been a long-time supporter of my work and I’m afraid I’m responsible for giving her a new addiction: bead embellished cabochons! I personally have been addicted to making these for quite a few years now and I simply can’t resist rifling

through loose semi-precious stones in a shop, or hunting for pretty stones on a beach. I can’t quite remember what started my own addiction, but somewhere along the way, I think I found a stone that I thought was so pretty that I wanted to be able to wear it, so I worked out a way of making a beaded casing to allow me to attach the stone to a necklace. I then added embellishment to create interest and bring out the colouring in the stone. I must have at least one of these stones for every outfit I possess, plus a lot to sell! Sometimes I attach them to a beaded rope, but mostly, I just leave them as pendants so I can grab whichever one I need to match my outfit and hang it on my favourite gold chain.

I like the idea of being able to wear these semi-precious stones close to my skin to take advantage of whatever healing powers they have! Or, in the case of a stone from the beach, it’s a lovely reminder of a holiday or of my favourite Cornish beaches. I happened to be wearing one of these stones when I went for interview for a job teaching at Missenden Abbey. The interviewer loved it and asked if I could teach it as a workshop. This of course I did, back in February this year. However, when I was starting to prepare the workshop materials, it occurred to me that it would make a good book. I fear I may have confused a few people: Jamie Cloud Eakin published a stunning book of beaded cabochons not

so long ago – her designs are amazing, so do take a look at it if you can. Jamie’s designs focus on using cabochons with bead embroidery, so they are beautifully adorned from the front, but are backed with backing materials. I love this idea, but I have also found that a lot of the stones I’ve gathered are beautiful on both front and back, so I wanted to keep as much of the stone visible as I could. Depending on the size and shape of the stone, I have developed a few different methods for capturing them with beads, but leaving both faces of the stone visible, so they can be worn as reversible pendants. This is what I have covered in my own book of Bead Embellished Cabochons.

Well, that covers my story of bead embellished cabochons, but my story has led onto another story: the lovely German lady that I mentioned at the start of this post, bought a copy of my book when it first came out. For anyone who pre-ordered the book, I gave away a free cabochon kit so that they would have something to get started with immediately. The kit contained a stone and a set of beads that could be used, working with the instructions in the book, to capture and embellish the stone. I’ve seen the results of several of these little kits and everyone seemed to like them so much that I decided to add them as a kit to the website. Dottie bought a few of these kits and had a great time making them, so one thing led to another…and another…and I’m afraid she is now quite addicted. She has even given them a special name ‘Katie kits’! Dottie has been blogging about these in Germany and she has sent me photos of all the cabochons that she has made. The two most recent photos arrived this week and it made me think that I should share the whole collection with you all here. Most of them have made their way into the gallery pages already, but I love the way Dottie’s ideas have evolved from the first kits where she was still familiarising herself with the techniques, to her most recent makes where the creativity is just endless.

 

This kit included a beautiful multi-coloured blue stone. I loved the colouring in this stone, so it was really good fun to find beads to bring out the pattern and colours. I honestly have as much fun putting the kits together as I hope that the recipient will have in beading them! 

This orange stone has been named ‘Orange Cocktails’ and Dottie particularly asked if I had an orange stone as this is a colour she’s not too fond of working with. The only orange stone I had was a slightly unusual, almost triangular shape. Dottie adapted a flower design from one of my other patterns, the Rose Chain necklace, and used that to embellish the cabochon. I love that Dottie used the stone shape to her advantage and has left the corners exposed so the stone really becomes the star of the piece, but it’s also really securely held in place. Personally, I think the results are fantastic.

It is an immense thrill for me to be able to see the lovely work that people have made using patterns that I’ve designed, so I hope that Dottie’s work has inspired you to perhaps try a cabochon or two of your own. I’m hoping I might persuade her to try one of my new kits…the unusual shaped glass stone struck my fancy. I originally found one in a gift shop in Cornwall, in bright pink, so I just had to have it. I didn’t embellish it for a while, but when I finally found the inspiration to bead around it, I loved the results and wished I’d bought more of these stones in different colours. Then I found someone who supplies them, so I have a few kits in clear glass, but I know there are other colours available too, so if you are looking for something in particular, just let me know.

I’m off to continue working on a new project, but a very big thank you to Dottie for sharing her beautiful work, making me smile and providing so much inspiration!