Opal Collar, Step Three and a half

An Even Dozen Opals
Originally uploaded by satyridae

I stayed up until after one making bezels. My dad says I was clear as mud in my last entry, so:

To make a beaded bezel around a cabochon, I first sew a ring of beads as close as possible to the stone using the backstitch technique. This is done by picking up three beads on the needle, sewing down past the last bead, then going back under the first bead and coming up again to sew through the last two beads. Once the initial ring of beads is complete, I go through all the beads one more time with the thread. This helps them to line up nicely. Then I work a row of peyote stitch on top of the ring of beads, which means I add a bead on top of every other bead. I continue to work in peyote until I think there is a tall enough collar to hold the cabochon in, then I do a final row of peyote using teeny tiny crystal clear beads. The tiny beads cause the gold beads to fold over and draw together like a drawstring, snugging the stone beneath.

Five more stones to go!