AJE Component of the Month May 2016

This month over at the Art Jewelry Elements blog, we had the chance to play with some of Sue's SueBeads tiny heart and star cabochons...Just look at them!  They remind me of candy and I just want to gobble them up!

I asked Sue to send me some stars, but asked to be surprised with the color choice - a color challenge is always my favorite type!  When my package arrived, I found that Sue had chosen 3 stars for me in varying shades of turquoise...one of my favorite colors!  But then the challenge turned into, what do you do with such teensy cabs...
Well, a few days later a package of goodies from Joan Miller arrived, and I just knew what to do!  Presenting StarryEyed - a brooch -

This periwinkle eye cab by Joan Miller worked perfectly with the 3 little stars.  I wanted to make sure that each element stood out, so I did the bezels around the stars and much of the background beading with chalky, light grey seed beads.

I added some white drops at the valley of each star arm for texture.

I knew I wanted eyelashes after I finished the bezel around the eye, so I went with a golden orange bead, and tipped each short fringe with a mauve bead to pick up the lavender in the iris.

To add a little movement, I used some of Sue's fantastic headpins.  I added a few more lampwork beads (by Sue and other artists), plus a few purple Czech glass beads, and roughly coiled the rest of the wire around the uppermost beads to make these dangles.  On my last row of the edging, I worked them into small loops, so they dangle directly from the edge of the brooch.

Normally on my bead embroidery, I do a simple picot edge.  This time I decided I wanted the edge to be more of a frame, so I used 6/0 and 8/0 seed beads to build a few rows of brick stitch before doing my picot row.  Part of the reason I did this was because my scrap of ultrasuede for the foundation and backing was small...this way I was able to build out the brooch to a more substantial size that I had originally envisioned.  It also allowed for a gentle ruffle to occur, and provided a connection point for the lampwork dangles.

I had so much fun pulling all of these elements together, and the finished product just makes me happy!  This color palette is a bit of a departure for me - usually I lean towards black or gray as a neutral, but in this case white and light gray were the way to go!  This brooch is going to decorate my new Baggallini purse - it's bright turquoise, like the star on the right.  I can't wait to tote this new piece around!
Please hop along and see what everyone else created with Sue's tasty lil cabs this month!  I'm off to do that now...I can't wait to see the other colors!

Guests

Allison Herrington

Lola Surwillo

AJE Team Members

Susan Kennedy - host

Diana Ptaszynski

Kristen Stevens

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Caroline Dewison

Lindsay Starr You are here!

Lesley Watt

Jennifer Cameron

Niky Sayers