Getting down to business, this month's prompt is something that almost always inspires me - Bead A Rock! Since I know that not everyone is quite as excited about beading an actual, normal, boring rock as I am, I am including beading around a semi precious cabochon or donut as Beading A Rock.
In the last few years I have been collecting little rocks from places my husband and I visit, bringing them home, and encasing them with beads. Sometimes I encase them with freeform peyote, sometimes with freeform right angle weave, sometimes with a combination of both. If you're interested in photos of some of the ones I've done previously, you can find them all in a blog post HERE. This month I plan on using a special beady soup I purchased to encase one in a combination of the two stitches mentioned above. If you're interested in finding out how to encase your own rocks, Karen Williams of Skunk Hill Studios wrote a book on freeform beadwork in which I have a tutorial explaining how I go about it. (The book is also jam packed chock full of other awesomeness, so I recommend it even if you never want to bead a rock!) You can grab the book HERE on Amazon, or you can get the quick download Ebook HERE in her Etsy shop.
This is the rock I made for Karen's book. :)
I found some really fabulous tutorials/kits around this prompt for beading around cabochons or shaped rocks if you aren't into beading a rock from your driveway, so read on.
Have you ever seen those gorgeous semi precious egg shaped rocks? Should you happen to have one, or want to go and find one, Helena Tang Lim of Manek-Manek Beads has a stunning tutorial on creating a beaded version of a Faberge Easter Egg in her shop HERE. (I'm sure you could use a different egg form rather than the semi precious one, which is likely to be expensive, but for this prompt it would really need to be a rock.)
Betty Stephan Beadwork has AHMAZING tutorials and kits which use semi precious rocks - I especially love this brooch kit. You can purchase any of her things HERE.
Ella Dess of Ellad2 has a beautiful tutorial in her shop for beading around a semi precious donut - something I keep meaning to do myself, as I have a ton of donuts and Ella's tutorials are wonderful. You can find the tutorial HERE.
And the terrifically talented Lynn Davy has a tutorial on capturing a cabochon with right angle weave and peyote HERE in her Nemeton Etsy shop.
There are also lots of tutorials which use lunasoft cabochons out there, and if you have a semi precious cab of the same diameter you could definitely substitute.
This is the ordinary little rock I'm starting with - hopefully I will have some in progress pics to show in the FB group, and a finished and ornate rock to show next month. I hope you have fun with the prompt, I can't wait to see what you all come up with! Have fun and happy beading!
