Wolf, Labradorite, and Moonstone

Here's another beaded pendant I'm working on.  I made the wolf head a year or so ago - I sculpted it from polymer clay then painted it.

My first step in making the pendant was looking through my stone cabochons to decide what to pair with it, and I chose a round rainbow moonstone and this very rounded triangular labradorite.  Once the stones were selected, they nearly self-selected the beads. 

My original bead selection didn't include the amber color.  It was only after I had been beading a while that I realized that the beading was way to cool given the tans and buffs in the wolf.  So I added the amber beads to my palette and added a few randomly throughout the design.

After making a few of these pendants, the process is becoming pretty standard.  After I'm done with the flat beading (in other words, all the beading except any dangles), I trim the backing as close to the beading as I can get without cutting through any threads.  Then I glue on the ultrasuede backing.  I get the ultrasuede from http://www.fieldsfabrics.com because they have a nice selection of colors and will sell in amounts as small as 1/8 yard which is particularly nice because ultrasuede is expensive!

Beginning with the mustang pendant that I finished a few days ago, I have added a stiffener between the beading and the ultrasuede.  I use a piece of plastic that I cut from a plastic lid.  It's about 3/16" smaller all around than the beading so that I won't hit it with my needle when I finish the edges.  I simply lay the trimmed beaded piece on a piece of paper and draw all around it.  Then I cut a shape from the paper that's smaller that the beading and use that as a pattern for cutting the plastic.  Alene's Fast Grab glue is a great adhesive for joining the layers because.....it grabs fast!

When the glue is set, I trim the ultrasuede even with the beaded piece and finish all the edges with tiny, closely spaced whip stitches using two strands of embroidery thread.  Then I'm ready to add any bangles as well as the peyote stitch bail.  It's a little tricky to add the dangles because I have to attach them to the existing beading without piercing through the piece.  So all the thread knots are hidden within the beading.

No Fierce Bears

 

 

I don't think I could sculpt (or paint, for that matter) a fierce animal if I tried.

 

This little black bear will be part of another pendant.  His face is about 1 1/4" across.  I sculpted him from dark brown polymer clay then painted him.  He has 3mm glass eyes from http://www.glasseyesonline.com.

 

In this next picture I'm trying out various cabochons with him.  The top one is labradorite and the bottom one is chaoite (?).  Another variation uses a labradorite teardrop at the bottom instead of the purple stone.  And yet another version uses an oval amethyst cabochon at the top instead of the labradorite. 

 

I wisely haven't glued the stones on yet.  I find that it is very difficult to work bead embroidery between two large cabochons (counting the bear as a cabochcon), so I'm going to work a round or two of beading around the bear before I glue the stones on.

 

In this trial arrangement I have the bear's head at a jaunty angle.  I like the humor and personality of it, plus it gives a bit of surprise from the expected symmetrical design.  I'm looking forward to beading this one. 



A Beautiful Palomino

 

The beading on this pendant took about 6 hours.  That's more than I've done on my other recent pendants - the owl, fox, and wolf - and I wonder if it will look overdone on a braided leather cord.  I'm thinking of a dark brown cord rather than the tan cord I've been using.  So I used dark brown beads in the peyote stitch bail to facilitate the transition to the color of the cord.

 

The alternative to a braided leather cord would be a beaded necklace, perhaps a groups of individual strands of the seed beads I used in the pendant embroidery studded with moonstone beads, and rhodocrosite beads if I could get them.  I'm aiming for the braided leather because I think it would make a more wearable piece.  But the beaded necklace would be beautiful.

 

In the bead embroidery I used four sizes of seed beads, and I think it gives a nice effect.  Mainly, I've used Delicas.  But the ivory colored beads ringing the cabochon, the pearly beads in the lower portions, and the gold beads forming the outer ring around the cabochon as well as the outline of the teardrop shape containing two of the moonstones are regular size 11s.  The pink beads around the other two moonstones are 15s.  And I've also used a few other colors of 15s here and there to fill holes between the larger beads.  The larger beads at the ends of the dangles are either 8s or 6s, I don't remember which.  I like the variety in size, and there is also a variety of finishes on these beads.

 

The symmetry of the shape is not perfect, and I didn't try to make it so.  I like a bit more of an organic look - an attempt at symmetry, but not obsessively so.

Mustang Pendant - a Palomino

Here's the beginning of another bead embroidery pendant.  The horse head is a polymer clay one that I made a few years ago.  At that time I put them away, each paired with a beautiful stone cabochon.  This cabochon is rhodocrosite and the beautiful pink color is echoed in the horse's nose.

If I were sculpting the horse's head today I would do a better job, especially with the nose.  But still I think it's a pretty nice horse and should make a stunning pendant.  As always, although the bead embroidery is tedious as I sew the tiny glass seed beads on one by one, but I mysteriously find the process soothing.

Badger Bits

I'm starting on another small animal doll - this time a badger.  The head and paws are polymer clay which I've painted with acrylic paints.  I'm really liking this approach.  I do the sculpting simply and with an untextured surface then create the texture (hopefully) with the painting.  The eyes are glass from glasseyesonline.com and they add a sense of life. 

For the claws and nose, I painted interference blue acrylic over the black clay to give a sense of shine on the former and wetness on the latter.

I'm considering having my armature wire go all the way through the feet to anchor in a wood base.  More thinking is required on that.  But I seem to always have a problem towards the end of the project with figuring out how the doll will stand.

The Fox is Felted

 



The felting went smoothly and here's my handsome fox.  He's the Star-Gazer, but besides that, I need to find him a name.  "Simon" just suggested itself to me, so perhaps that will be it - I'll decide by the next post when I'll have him dressed.

I like the way this little fellow's pose turned out, and that was all a result of seemingly endless fiddling with the armature And the tail is nice and fluffy.  Felting right up to the polymer clay head and paws worked out well because the ends of the polymer pieces where they meet the armature are flat.

It will be difficult to decide how to dress him, partly because I am reluctant to cover up much of the felting that I worked so hard on.  But also it will be quite difficult to make kind of jacket for him as the front legs are so far forward on the body.  I guess it's natural that the ease of constructing human type clothes for a creature will be in proportion to how closely the body resembles a human body.  So the clothing design will take quite a bit of pondering before I proceed.

Padding the Armature

 



I have now padded the wire armature with strips of wool felt that I wrapped around the wires and stitched in place.  I chose wool felt so that the wool fiber that I will felt with will stick to the armature.  As I worked on the padding it occurred to me that it would be easier to just wrap the wire with thick wool yarn and tie the ends.  Presumably, the wool fiber would needle felt to the wool yarn just fine.  I'll have to try that and see how it works.  Another advantage might be that wool yard would be easier to find than wool felt.