How I make a pair of bead embroidered earrings

18th May 2011

How I make a pair of bead embroidered earrings

I love beads and gemstones of every kind and I was lucky to find a matched pair of Kyanite cabochons. They are a beautiful blue violet stone that has a lot of depth and color. I decided when I saw them that they had to be a pair of earrings. Then I thought it would be fun to share the creative process step by step.

I am not a good planner when I make something I kinda like to create as I go letting the project develop organically. That being said I am trying to be a better planner so step one of this bead embroidered project was to make a rough[very rough] sketched plan as a starting point who knows if I will follow the design as sketched.

The next step is to mount the stones to some very stiff interfacing that will become a stitching base. I use e-6000 glue it’s stinky for a while but works great for this step.

Now come the fun and frustrating job of picking the colors of beads to stitch with. I an very inspired by color and for me it’s a big part in the development of a design. I have a huge stash of beads to choose from. I like using Delica beads; they are a very high quality bead from Japan.