Beads beads beads

My friend Larkin was here for a week, and despite her raging bronchitis, she proved to be a real trooper. We went to the Round Top Antiques Festival and found some wonderful treasures to use in our art. Some were old postcards, some were little bottles for beading, and some were what we called "Rusty Stuff", which Larkin was very sharp-eyed at spotting for me!

Of course we couldn't let our evenings go by without some beading, so Larkin showed me how to bezel a rivoli bead "in the air" ... a difficult and "fiddly" technique, but so much fun once I mastered it! Larkin, as many of you know, is a wonderful teacher (http://www.larkinart.com/) and is so generous with her knowledge.

Here's my first attempt at a bezeled 3/4" rivoli (two views because the colors look different at different angles) ...





Then, once I realized how to do the Peyote stitch on a solid object rather than on fabric (which was the only way I'd done it before), I was encouraged to try it on a tiny bottle ... only 2-1/4" tall ... here are the results ... front and back:




(I didn't want to cover up the Benjamin Franklin image on the bottle, so I added a little "cuff" along the sides.) Both the bezeled rivoli and the beaded bottle were done in Delicas.

Poor Larkin is recovering at home now, after I ran her all over the countryside ... but we did get some good video-viewing in, as well as some great visiting. Thanks, Larkin!