Beads and Bezels

I have had more fun the past couple of weeks playing with beads. I am trying to teach myself some beading stitches and techniques and at the moment beading a bezel has my attention.

Not much personal  sewing has been happening here since the jeans completion. And if you are a creative type, you know lots of things are asking you to create with them. They sit in the back of your mind fermenting, while you sew, into some overflowing brew that just has to be dealt with. For the past 6 months, for myself, that has been beading and dyeing. Off and on over the years I have dabbled in jewelry making and always enjoyed it. True, I always go back to my first love, sewing, but I think it is good to wake up the creative senses with a bit of variety.
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What you see here are cabochons, aka, "cabs", that I made this weekend and it was such fun. This is what happens when you mix a bag of dollar store glass blobs, some large flaky glitter and all sorts of nail polish. Each one was done individually and I  just didn't know how these would turn out at all. Some of them I am really pleased with.

I definitely have my favorites and will show a few. Love the opal effect of the one above.  And the black and orange of the one below really calls out to me.

And I love the multi colored black opal effect of the this one below. What to do with them all? My goal is to bead them all around, what is called a bezel,  and then attach them to some sort of jewelry. This is a project left totally up to creative flow, and that is just so much fun. I think every now and then we need to just play with color, texture and form in a highly unstructured way. I more than likely won't bead every cab you see but the project will have served it purpose to renew my creativity and that is so important. 

I have had a sewing project going on. I gladly agreed to make a long dress for a bridesmaid. Huh? She is a good friend, one who definitely understands and appreciates my work and was really in a bind. She is 52 and was asked to be a bridesmaid in a second wedding. The bride has instructed all four bridesmaids to wear long "baby blue" dresses of their choice. Do you have any idea what it is like to find a long, baby blue bridesmaid's dress for a 52 year old? She has spent so much time looking and nothing seemed appropriate or attractive. My feeling sorry for her teamed up with her desperation and here I gladly am. At this point we have fitted the muslin and now I will adjust the pattern and cut out. I found a sky blue knit that will be made up into a simple column with a cowl neck and not sure what sort of sleeves yet. I am going to see how it looks before deciding on sleeves. The dress will be lined. I should have this done before the deadline at the end of August no  problem. We are trying to think of ways to embellish the dress so it won't be so plain. Her attitude is "just get me through this" and I hope to, at least with a bit of style. So that is sewing that's happening here. In the meantime beads  keep entertaining me and contributing a lot to my sanity level and creative lust.....Bunny