Jo Ray, who designs and teaches at Bead Soup in Savage, Maryland, has been experimenting with the belly band. That is the starting point for many of the bracelets in CGB. It's a modified RAW technique that is really quite simple but brilliant. Jo decided to try using it to bezel around a marble. You could also use a large bead. One thing led to another and she came up with a 4 sided bezel which intrigued me. So, I took her class and after the class was over she and I were talking about the versatility of the whole concept of using the band and creating wings and horns. As we were talking I had a light bulb moment when I knew what I was going to do with what I just learned. I don't have a picture of the class project because it was put aside when I got home. It will become a future experiment! I started over and changed a few things and ended up with this.
I started the bezel the way Jo taught it, but I used a single needle instead of the double needle that she used. My process for stitching the four bands around the marble was changed and at that point the whole thing took on a life of it's own! What I ended up with wasn't what I had thought I would end up with!! But, I love what happened and I'll go back to the class project and see what that becomes and if I can stick more to the vision I had. Anyway, back to this one. Once the bezel was finished and the marble was in place I peyote along the band and increased in one space to begin the wing. As I worked each band I moved the increase down the peyote so that the wings would be stepped down away from each other. Once the bands were finished I did a herringbone finial at the bottom and placed a crystal drop inside. For the bail I used peyote stitch to create a loop and hung the pendant from a ball chain. Here are some close up photos.
I feel this method of working geometric beadwork is only inhibited by imagination. It's a very freeing sort of process, one where one idea grows out of another. Right now I've moved on to the Rick-Rack bracelets section of the book and I'm having a great time working on my first version of that idea! Once again, horns (because I can't get enough of horns and wings) are making an appearance! Stay tuned.
Along with all this wonderful beady fun I'm having this summer, my daughter and I decided to add to our ever growing list of things to do and take a beginners Zentangle class from our friend Patti at The Queen's Ink. Patti is a certified Zentangle teacher and her work is so beautiful. So, I've been working on tangling as much as possible. You'll see some of those results soon, I'm sure!
Thank you so much for stopping by today. I hope you are having a wonderful summer. It's going by so quickly and I'm trying to enjoy and savor it. Hopefully you are too!
