Most of us are used to round, oval or rectangular shapes of cabochons or crystals, and most of bead embroidery is created around those shapes. But what do you do when you see a stone of an unusual shape? You might like it very much and even purchase it paying way more than usual. How are you going to design around it?

Unusual Shapes in Bead Embroidery Design

Challenges

The challenges of designing with unusual shapes include, but not limited to the following:

• enclosing a stone within beadwork is not always an option
• edges might be too rough or too smooth to use peyote stitch around them
• the shape might require an individual approach in every case, even if you use similar stones in the same jewelry piece.

Solutions

The solutions will always depend on a particular stone and your desired outcome.

Here are some general suggestions:

• Free-form peyote might replace peyote bezeling technique when you insist on covering the edges of the stone or crystal with beadwork and securing it at the same time.
• Open your mind to the free-form design, instead of geometrical shapes and patterns. It might enliven the design with motifs reflecting stone patterns, colors, and textures.
• Consider adding more unusual shapes to balance the composition.

My Experience and Ideas

One of the solutions I found, was before I even encountered an unusual shape of a stone. Although, you might agree, that the focal stone in my Tonga Queen necklace.

Tonga Queen Necklace

The stone was designed to be strung in a necklace. Of course, I thought of attaching it to the backing and embroidering around it, but the problem was, it had a puffed surface on both sides, smooth, but not suitable for quick secure attachment such as glue.
This top-drilled shape was asking to be strung!

Thus I created a bead embroidered shape, that would allow stringing it – the upsidedown U shape.

That focal stone had a smooth and flat surface on both sides, but was not perfect for embroidering around it for the following reasons:

• Irregularly shaped edges promised more challenges
• The Transparency of the stone suggested I highlight this feature rather than hide it
• The color of edges, different from the center of the stone, would also be lost in the embroidery if I would choose to stitch directly around it. I believed this would tremendously ruin the impression of the focal point.

Later, I used the same principle to design around a top-drilled stone in a couple of other necklaces.

Kona Dreams Necklace

Kona Dreams was a large project, and the focal agate stone was not the major focal point of the whole necklace, but it continued telling the story of the necklace and therefore, played the major role in completing it with an unexpected ending.

Laguna Woods Necklace

Another experiment,  Laguna Woods, came out almost as weird as I expected. And that is ok. Breaking the unwritten rules of beadwork design is one of my hobbies within a hobby!

Lepidolite Necklace

In my other design project, Lepidolite Necklace, I used free-form peyote, to decorate and secure the large stone with sharp edges.

I am sure there are many more creative ideas to incorporate irregular shapes into bead embroidery designs. What is your favorite?
Maybe you have an idea that you have not entirely thought through or implemented?