Finding Your Beading Thing

That's a rather clunky title but given that I bead all over the place - trying new stitches, patterns, etc., I realize I have an addiction to variety.  But mastery, and artistry, comes to those who do find a (beading) voice and stick to it.

My thing has become designing with stained glass. It all started with my friend Beth, who is a stained-glass artist. We did a trade or two. She made me a gorgeous stained-glass panel in teal and orange that hangs in the front window of my house to go with the colors in that room.

Here's what I made her, a split-loom necklace with a phoenix pattern I found in one of my cross-stitch pattern books:

One time I showed her a beaded cabochon I had done with a large crystal that had no foil on the back. She immediately imagined building a stained glass window around it and our first collaboration began.

 Not the best photo, but my beaded cab has been stitched to three metal rings soldered to the inner circle of this stained glass window.

I made another large pendant in turquoise and amethyst and Beth made a wonderful window to frame it, soldering two metal rings for attaching it. It took me probably 6 or 8 months of looking at it to finally decide how I wanted to do that. I used an expanding herringbone stitch to create a band to cover the metal loops, with crystal rondels stitched through it and the metal ring like a sandwich to keep the beadwork in place and add another embellishment.

I wish the photos were better – it turns out there's something more difficult to photograph than beadwork.

I'll be posting a lot more on working with stained glass. This turned out to be the beginning of an absorbing exploration of a new beading medium.