Bead Embroidered Heart Brooch

Darcy Horn creates a polymer clay cabochon for her heart-shaped brooch and embroiders beads all over the piece.

All About

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Darcy Horn has a background in architecture and art history and currently works as a buyer for a bead shop. After her mom took up the hobby of beading she turned Darcy on to it and she was hooked. Not satisfied with learning just one technique, she has since learned several bead-stitching methods and has become quite the polymer clay bead maker. One of her favorite polymer clay techniques is called Mokume Gane — which imitates an ancient Japanese art form.

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Materials and Tools:

Kato polymer clay (one color and translucent)
copper and silver leaf
Faux Dichro Liquid Glass
pasta machine
hand roller
marble surface
toaster oven
latex gloves
flexible tissue blade
paintbrush
baking dish
E6000 epoxy
220- 400- 600- and 1500-grit sandpaper
plastic bag or wrap
Lacey’s Stiff Stuff
tacky glue (thick white glue)
marker
leather
combo brooch/pendant finding
Japanese seed beads - sizes 15, 11, 8, and 6 (in several colors to match and contrast with polymer cabochon)
Silamide thread
size 12 beading needles
accent beads - metals, semi-precious and Czech glass

Steps:

Polymer Cabochon

1. Condition 1/2 oz. of blue clay on setting #5 on a pasta machine. Condition 1/2 oz. of translucent clay on setting #5 on the pasta machine. Cut each sheet of clay into quarters.

2. Working on a marble surface, layer a quarter sheet of blue clay, a piece of copper leaf and a layer of translucent clay.

Place a piece of silver leaf over the translucent clay unit.

Repeat the layering again, color clay, copper leaf, translucent clay and silver leaf.

Continue the process until there are 16 layers.

Cut the piece in half and stack the two halves, producing a finished block with 32 layers.

3. Reduce this finished block slightly using a hand roller or glass jar.

4. Using the flexible blade held slightly curved, carve or shave into the block. This will reveal a grain of clay layers.

5. Base Bead:

Roll a piece of clay into a round shape for the base bead.

Cut two or three shaved pieces from the block using the tissue blade.

Cover the base bead with the shaved pieces.

Put on gloves and flatten the bead into a cabochon on the marble surface.

Remove the cabochon piece from the marble board with the tissue blade and transfer it to an ovenproof, clay-dedicated dish.

6. Heat the oven to 275-degrees and bake the cabochon for 25 minutes. Let cool.

7. Wet-sand the cabochon beginning with 220-grit sandpaper and work to 1500-grit paper. This removes any fingerprints or other imperfections in the surface. Tack the cabochon onto a piece of plastic bag or wrap using scrap clay. Apply Faux Dichro Liquid Glass to the surface of the cabochon using a paintbrush. Let dry 45 minutes. Apply another coat and let dry for 2-3 hours.

Beaded Brooch

1. Draw a heart shape for the pendant on a piece of paper. Trace the heart onto Lacey’s Stiff Stuff and cut it out. Trace the heart pattern onto leather for the backing and cut it out. Shade the Stiff Stuff with a marker. Sand the back of the cabochon and glue into desired position with E6000. Let set for 10 minutes.

2. Begin beading a bezel around the cabochon. Outline it with size 11 seed beads and with a backstitch technique (4 beads down, stitch through backing, come up through two beads and repeat). Work this base row into even count peyote in the round until it reaches just over the edge of the cabochon.

Bead the last row with size 15 seed beads to achieve a tight hold around the cabochon.

3. Draw lines, curves, or angles directly onto the Stiff Stuff to define areas of the bead-embroidered piece.

4. Use the backstitch method to create lines, fringe and "shag" technique to fill in with different sizes and shapes of seed beads. On fringes, add semi-precious, Czech beads, or metal beads to add color and texture.

5. When embroidery work is complete, determine the placement of the pin back and trace onto leather backing. Cut out the leather backing with a blade and a safe cutting surface. Set finding into leather.