About Me

Lindsay M Starr is a beadwork and mixed media artist currently based in Nashville, TN. She spent her early childhood in Alaska, and her school age and college years in Oregon. Lindsay has a great appreciation for history, science, and nature and is consistently inspired by insects, sea life, color, and the significance of beads and beadwork throughout human history. She spends her days beading, walking at the zoo, and practicing yoga. Lindsay loves to share her knowledge and passion for beads and beadwork to hobbyists of all skill levels.

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Art Elements January 2017 Component of the Month Reveal - Leather Cabochon!

This month, the Art Elements component of the month was a bit different than usual for me...I was the maker of the component!  Since I am typically not a component maker, I normally let everyone else sign up for the monthly slots, but for some reason several months ago, I signed up for a challenge.  After much fretting about what to make, I had an idea...that actually worked out...and I ran with it.  Introducing - leather cabochons!
I cut out and wet molded belt weight vegetan leather, then dyed and painted them when dry.  I was vaguely inspired by Australian Aboriginal dot art, and also had fun applying paint with the old tried and true toothbrush technique.
I kept these two for myself ,intending to use the long oval as a jellyfish bell, and making a huge statement jellyfish necklace...but as so often is the case, that's not what happened!
I ended up using the splattered dark teal/purple cabochon.  I was inspired by how much it looked like photos of deep space and ran with a circular/orbital look on everything.
It was more than a little difficult choosing cabs to pair with the leather cabochon.  I felt like most of my stash was too shiny, and took focus away from the leather cab, simply because it is so dark.  I ended up with a vintage acrylic cab (Etsy) in purple, black and gold, and a lampwork cab that I've had stashed away for several years (artist unknown).  Between the darkness and subtlety of each of these cabs, I felt like they both belonged in the same realm as the leather cab, even though the 3 materials couldn't be more different.
I bezeled each cab, and embroidered around each for just a few rows until they were all connected.  Glued on the ultrasuede backing, and edged the piece in some clear and black striped 8/0 beads, with a transparent grey rainbow bead on the picot's - I like that the edge appears to fade away.  To connect a necklace strap, I stitched a few twin beads between the picot's on the upper edges, and used the second hole of each to run my beading wire through.  To continue the circular/orbital theme, I strung a selection of large Czech glass disk shaped beads first - this also adds some overall weight close to the focal.  More weight was desperately needed, since the none of these cabs is very heavy.  I like weight in the front of a necklace, so that when you're wearing it you don't have to constantly adjust the orientation on your neck.  The strap continues up the neck with some black 6/0 beads, blue metallic 11/0's and I interspersed the segments with 3mm white opal druks, simply to carry some flecks of white further into the necklace.
I am more pleased with the results than I was expecting!  I think of it as my System necklace - interconnecting, orbiting circles that create an entire network of shapes, everything interrelated.

Making components has been an adventure for sure!  If you are interested, I do have a few more cabs for sale over at the Art Elements Extras Facebook group.  I'm not sure if I will ever make any more!

I do hope you will hop along and see what everyone else has cooked up with their leather cabs!  We have several guests this time, and I am super excited to see what everyone has made.