Friday, March 19, 2010

Something new...

Well, for me  it was new.  I had never done an inside bezel.  I don't know if that's what it should be called, an inside bezel, but since that's what it is, that's what I call it.  This is the result.


This is my newest necklace.  It started when Kathy, who owns a great bead shop called Bead Soup, at Savage Mill in Savage, Maryland, showed me some pottery pieces made by another artist who has a shop at the Mill.   Charlene Randolph owns The Clayground and makes these great pendants, among other wonderful pottery creations.  A customer of Kathy's had taken one of the pendants and bezeled the inside of the hole.  So, of course, I had to learn how to do it.  One Friday morning we sat at the bead shop and Jo taught  Kathy and me how to bezel the inside of the pendant.  It takes some trial and error to get the correct number of beads for the inital ring of beads.  Each pendant is hand made so the diameter is different for each one.  But, when you've determined how many beads will fit, you just begin to peyote stitch the bezel.  I ended the peyote with a picot stitch.


Once the front of the bezel is completed you fit it into the hole and work from the back side to complete the bezel and keep it from slipping out.  This pendant had a small hole in the top so that a wire or thread could be inserted up through it.  I used that in the finishing to attach the pendant to the necklace.  Once the pendant was finished I decided I would use it as the closure on a covered cord.  I had the perfect batik fabric in my stash and I used that to cover cotton cording.   I finished the ends with peyote tubes and firepolished crystals.  I stitched a peyote tube for the bar and attached it to one side of the necklace with a ladder stitch tab.  I then used the small hole in the top of the pendant to attach it to the other side of the necklace, going through a firepolished crystal to keep it all in place.

I was really pleased with how it turned out.  I love the idea of a bezel inside a doughnut or pendant.  It was fun to work out how to put it all together.  Because I used the fabric tube for a necklace it's very comfortable and light weight. 

It's always fun to learn something new and to add to your store of techniques. 

Thanks for visiting, have a wonderful day creating and maybe learing something new!

4 comments:

  1. That's gorgeous!

    Hey - speaking of Savage Mill, are you and Carrie planning to go up for the Homespun Yarn Party tomorrow?

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  2. This is really pretty Maryanne, I love the colors that you have chosen! Christen

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  3. What a fabulous idea! Your necklace is gorgeous, Maryanne. Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving your kind comments. :-)

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