Swarovski #4627 Octagon Fancy Jewel Bezel

I got such a cool e-mail!  I am going to share it, but remove the name to protect the innocent.

"Hi Marsha,
My name is X and I was reading your blog post about square beaded bezels.  Your tutorial is the most thorough I have come across!  I consider myself to be a fairly competent beader, but the beaded bezel technique including corners has completely eluded me!  Before I attempt this for the seventh time, I have a question for you...  I am trying this technique on a 27mm Swarovski Fancy Octagon.  I assume this technique would be the same for rectangular shapes, but the bead count would be more on the longer sides.  For the corners, once I have skipped a bead on the first round of creating the corner, would I skip it again on the next round of peyote stitch? Or do I just skip each corner once, then proceed as usual on the following rounds?  I hope that I am trying to describe makes sense.  :)  I am currently building a bit of a bead embroidery collection and it simply would not be complete with out bezelled cabochons of varying shapes!
Thanks so much for your blog posts.  Your beadwork is exquisite!
-X"

This felt like such a fun challenge to me that I raced out to my local bead shop yesterday and picked out one of the jewels.  It's a Swarovski "Fancy Jewel" #4627, 27x18mm.

I got it out this morning while water boiled for my coffee, and gave it a go.  I did it initially in silver delicas, with silver 15/0 rounds as needed.  I felt that the angles were too small to to skip a bead, which results in a 90 degree corner, so I just replaced the eight corners with 15/0 seeds, along the facets. I did do some decreases on the last row of the face. I thought it worked well, and after finishing the face, I realized it would be hard to see here in a picture, so I did it again in black and silver, to take pictures.  Then I looked at my clock and realized it was 9:30 and I had not ever made that coffee!  Time FLIES when you are having fun!

Here is the thinking I used.  I am sure there are other ways to do this, but, you can follow along if you like!

I strung a few cylinder (using delicas in the first effort and Aikos in the second, both work fine) beads and took a look at how many each side of the jewel would require.

The two short sides, top and bottom - 8 beads each x 2 = 16 beads
The two long sides, 14 beads each x 2 = 28 beads
The four diagonal corners, 4 beads each x 4 = 16 beads
16+28+16=60  So...

Rows 1 and 2 - I strung 60 beads on about 2 yards of fireline, and stitched through the first bead again, in the same direction.  I left about a 12 inch tail, which I used later.

Row 3 - I worked one row in peyote stitch, holding the work FLAT on my hand,so the outside row was larger than the inside one, trying to create the basic shape of the jewel, without any structural stitching, just thinking and shaping.

Then I stepped up into the inside of the oval shape.

Row 4 - Peyote stitch 6 11/0 cylinder beads , 1 15/0 seed. 1 cylinder, 1 15/0 seed, 3 cylinders, 1 15/0 seed, one cylinder, 1 15/0 seed, 6 cylinders, 1 15/0 seed, one cylinder, 1 15/0 seed, 3 cylinders, 1 15/0 seed, one cylinder, 1 15/0 seed, and step up into the next round.  (That is the pattern, but I don't work it in that order.  I started in the middle of a 6 cylinder side. When I do geometrically shaped bezels, I like to start in the middle of a long straight side, because starting at or near a corner is just too difficult and confusing.  I think it is easier to understand the pattern if it is written this way though. so in the picture, I am in the middle of the long side when I step up.)

See the eight 15/0 beads, and how they begin to create the shape?  My fingers and tension help this along.

Row 5 - Peyote stitch 7 11/0 cylinder beads, 2 15/0 seeds, 4 cylinders, 2 seeds, 7 cylinders, 2 seeds, 4 cylinders, 2 seeds, and step up in to the new round.

Row 6 - Switch to all 15/0 seeds and stitch 6, (I used black but they could have been silver) take one stitch without adding a bead, and add the one 15/0 seed corner bead, followed by a stitch with no bead.  Then stitch 3 15/0 seeds, one stitch with no bead, 1 15/0 seed and one stitch with no bead.  Repeat the 6 15/0 seeds, one skip, one seed, one skip and 3 15/0 seed, and the face is done and fits our shape nicely!  Has kind of a cool deco shape too.  Which I got all excited about and decided to finish a necklace with my little victory!

Row 7 - I stepped up through the bezel to the outside of the work, and switched to the tail thread. Then I loosely stitched a row of peyote with the cylinder beads. all the way around the bezel, holding the stone in place.  I needed to leave a little space at the outside corners between beads.  (It might have been possible to add a 15/0 seed at each corner, to be treated as a single bead in the next round, but I did not do that.)

Row 8 - I stepped up again and stitched a second row in peyote, this one more snug, beginning to hold the shape in place.  You must pay attention to having the stone positioned in the center as you work, and tighten carefully to keep things aligned properly.

Rows 9 and 10 - Turn the original thread and stitch two rounds of 15/0 seed beads.  SO here is a lesson.  When a shape does not have 90 degree corners, you could probably get away with just making the essence of an oval bezel. like I did to finish the back. but I really like my shaped front.

Then I got all crazy and spent the rest of the day adding to the top and bottom of the bezel to create a Hexagon, adding a drop and bail and beading a rope. Because I liked it, and I had a free day!!!

I continued with the Deco feeling of the bezel, and used up a cool little cone I got in my goodie bag from Swarovski at "Meet the Teachers" in Wisconsin at the Bead and Button show.  There were loads of pretty awesome things in that bag, but this one I have been trying to use for months!  For those of you who know me, I do not plan to sell this piece.  I consider it an experiment.  I want to see how the backside of the jewel wears, (since I did not completely cover it) and I want to see how permanent the "Permanent Finish" is on those silver beads. 

I liked working fast and crazy for a day, and want to thank my reader that a fabulous time!!!  

A Little Flower for You!

I am so honored that so many of you read my blog, that I want to offer up a little gift to you all. I am also celebrating my second place ribbon in the Ms. Maddie's Fabulous Florals category at the Bead Dreams competition.   Last year I posted a square bezel tutorial, and this year, I think I will give my readers a little flower component, in honor of  Merle Berelowitz.  This is an almost-no-strings-attached gift, although if you are planning to teach this component or sell it, I would really appreciate design credit.  If you give me credit for the design, I give you my permission to use this component as you like!

You will be making a 5 petal flower, so how sensible to begin with a base of five beads!  We will be using primarily circular flat peyote stitch and the beginning part of square stitch to create this component.

On a wingspan of thread, coated with a sticky conditioner like beeswax or microcrystalline wax, pick up 5 15/0 seed beads and sew through all five again to form a ring, leaving an 8" tail.  Don't tie a knot.

Now, stitch in circular flat peyote, one round of 15/0 seed beads, one between each of the original beads, and step up into the new round.

Next, stitch in circular flat peyote, one round of 11/0 seed beads, just like the last row and step up again.

Now, we want to cup the little base of the flower, so as we stitch the next round, we will wrap our generous tail around our little finger to allow us to pull its little bottom down.  We will add, using circular flat peyote, a row of 8/0 seed beads, pinching as we stitch to help the little cup form.  This is where the sticky thread conditioning helps, and you can add more at any point if your thread becomes slippery.

And then, after the step up, add a second row of 8/0 seeds, and step up a final time, continuing to help the work form and maintain a cup shape.  Now our base is finished and it is time to work the five petals, one off each of the five up beads.

To make the first petal, begin by adding three 11/0 seed beads, in a picot or sorts to the 8/0 you just exited, using square stitch, by stitching through the 8/0 again, in the same direction.  That is the essence of square stitch. In the real stitch, we would link this square to others with common side beads, but here, we use only the first portion of the stitch, without the connection.

Turn you work upside down, and we will work the rest of the petal from the back of the flower.  Add one of the 11/0 seeds and step into the first bead in the picot.  Then, square stitch a two bead picot on the bead your just entered.  I like to use a slightly different bead here, to make it easier to see what I am doing and to help create the illusion of depth.

Step into the next bead and add a two bead picot again and repeat the process on the third bead in the original picot. Keep your tension snug.

Now, add a final 11/0, the same bead as the original three bead picot, and pass through the 8/0 petal base bead again.

Now you have a three bead, inside cluster (the original picot), and an eight bead surround.  We are going to add one more row of square stitch picots, this time, using two beads in our eight bead surround row for each set of picots.  Go through two 11/0 beads in the outside row of eight, and pick up five 15/0 beads and sew through the two beads again, using square stitch.  The first set of two will be two different beads.

And here is the first five bead 15/0 picot in place.

Step into the next two beads, they will belong to two different picots, and pick up four 15/0 seed beads.  We will borrow the fifth bead from our picot from the original five bead picot.  Sew through the second set of two beads again, in square stitch, this time, the real deal and connected! (although traditional square uses only four beads)

Repeat this step two more times, with the remaining four beads in the outside row, picking up the fifth picot bead from its neighbor each time.  Here's the third set.

And the final set will have two different 11/0 beads, just like the first. After you apply the last five bead picot with square stitch, go through the 8/0 base again.  Your petal should look like the photo below.

In this last step of petal making, we will pull the petal into a little cup shape, like the base.  Pick up a 15/0, and go through the four beads standing up in the first picot.

Pick up another 15/0 and stitch through the three beads in the second picot.

Repeat this step twice more, going through the third three bead picot and the fourth four bead picot. Pick up a final 15/0 and stitch through the 8/0 base again.

Flip the work over, looking at the front of the flower and step ahead through the down 8/0 to and through the next 8/0 up bead.  This is the base for the second petal.  Now tighten the stitch, so the petal edges cup up, just like the base of the flower.

Add the first three bead picot to the base in the second petal, flip the work over and repeat the above petal process, until you have five petals complete. Here are two petals finished and a third, waiting to be flipped over, and pulled up into a cup.

 And here is our little five petal flower, finished!

And here is what the back view looks like.  You may weave in your threads to finish the flower, or use them to attach other parts to your flower, or to attach the flower to other things.

I added a pearl to the center of the flower, and rings to the back to create earrings, but the possibilities are endless.

Please, show me what you make with my five petal flower tutorial gift! 

I would love to see whatever you create on my facebook page. 

In a few weeks... or maybe a month... or maybe... well, EVENTUALLY...

  I'll show you what else I did with it.

Happy beading!  :o)