The Beaded Bezel

The Beaded Bezel

I am not a huge fan of beads. Most of the jewelry I make is with faceted gemstones, and standard jewelry castings. I gave wire wrapping a try, and I just do not care for most of it. I have some large cabachons that would be extremely expensive to set in a traditional setting, so I decided to learn how to bead a pendant around them. My first attempt was completely disastrous. 3 hours, and it looked like garbage. So I read and practiced some more. My second, and third attempts were so much better. Still not perfect, and not sellable, but I can definitely wear it, and show it off. It is a picture jasper free form cabachon, which made it that much more difficult because it has one straight edge rather than curved like the rest. I will use small beads from now on, I do not like the way the large ones sit, and I should have left off one row of the larger beads to show the design better. But still not bad, what do you think?