Fairy Forest Bead Embroidery – Inspiration

Aniko beaded it from the Academy box for this Theme, and she is here to share the main steps of the beading journey, experience, ideas, and inspiration in the following article, which you may take as a tutorial for your jewel, or a knowledge source.

She says about her inspiration: „I was enchanted by the Czech glass cabochon with the painted leaves. I saw a mystical jewel, a nature-inspired pendant or brooch in my mind, and the wing filigree just added to this magic. I saw whispering leaves in the enchanted forest, so I named the jewel Leaf Whisperer.”

🌿 Leaf Whisperer

In the hush of the forest, where secrets ride the breeze,
a single leaf carries the song of the trees.
Embroidered in mist and kissed by twilight,
the Leaf Whisperer holds woodland dreams tight.

Material list for a pendant/necklace:

• 1x 27 mm Handmade Glass cabochon Fairy Meadow or Fairy Forest in Vitrail Light
• 26x 3 mm Preciosa Bicone Beads in Jet Hematite Full
• 32x 3 mm Preciosa Bicone Beads in Caribbean Sea AB 2X
• 1x 4 mm Preciosa Chaton Montee in Crystal in Silver colored Setting
• 1x 7 mm Preciosa Chaton Rose in Rose Peach
• 32x 3 mm Fire-Polished beads in Chalk White Lila Vega Luster
• 11/0 Miyuki Delica in 1595 Matte Opaque Sea Opal AB
• 15/0 Miyuki seed beads in 198 Copper Lined White Opal
• 15/0 Miyuki seed beads in Duracoat Galvanized Eggplant 4220
• 15/0 Miyuki seed beads in 194 Palladium Plated
• 1x 8.5×37 mm Dragonfly Fairy Wings Filigree Antique-silver
• Ultrasuede foundation in Azure Blue
• 0.12 mm Fireline, Tulip needle, Glue and pendant/pin component

OPTIONAL for the decoration and the beaded chain:

• Chain for decoration,
• 1x 6×10 mm Preciosa Crystal Pendant Drop in Pink Sapphire
• 2x 5×10 mm Navette Glass Cabochon with Claw in Light Rose
• Fire-Polished beads
• Clasp of your choice

The Bible of Bead Embroidery Knowledge: The Traveller

I recommend starting here if you are new or want to deepen your existing knowledge. If you would like to bead any of the more complicated jewels in the future, you will need to be 100% comfortable with the basics. The more advanced tutorials don’t repeat all the hints and tips every time, so before you dig deeper, please, give yourself some time, and bead a Traveller. The instructions are extremely detailed, everything is recorded on video, and you can watch them as many times as you need. There are also recorded Q&A sessions from the time when I was teaching The Traveller for the first time, that besides my insight, are also deemed with knowledge and experience shared by fellow, more experienced beaders.

After watching these videos and beading your first Traveller, you’ll be perfectly prepared to play with all the beads and components in this article!

LEAF WHISPERER – The Fairy Forest bead embroidery

I created a simple peyote bezel for the cabochon and then decorated the motif with rows of different beads by following the bead embroidery basics of Erika’s ‘The Traveller’ video tutorials.

1. Prepare your beads and foundation.
2. Draw your lines, a cross with 90° that will help you find the middle line when placing decorative elements onto it.
3. Glue the cabochon to the Ultrasuede foundation, then bezel it with peyote.
4. Add rows of beads according to your personal taste, or follow the instructions.
5. Add the decorative elements, e.g. Wing filigree, Preciosa Chaton Rose, Chaton Montee.
6. Cut your beadwork and glue the backing.
7. Finish your beadwork by stitching the layers of Ultrasuede together.
8. Add a chain and/or decorative drops

1. Prepare the Ultrasuede with drawing your lines – first a cross with 90°, and then also 45°

2. Glue your cabochon to the center of your lines. Start bezeling the cabochon with 2-bead backstitch using D11 beads.

3. After bezelling the cabochon with peyote –  I needed 4 rows of D11 beads and 2 rows of R15B round seed beads -, I added one row of FP3 beads all around the bezel.

4. Add decoration around the FP3 beads:

• Come out between two FP3 beads and pick up five R15A beads. Sew back through the Ultrasuede where you started.
• Go through the first two R15A, add R15B, and go through three R15A.

5. This is how your jewel looks now.

6. Working again with backstitch, attach BIC3 and R15C interchangeably.

7. Place the Wing filigree and the Chaton Montee in the middle of the line, and sew them to the Ultrassuede. You can apply tiny drops of glue to keep them in place while you are sewing them.

8. Bezel a 7 mm Chaton Rose with square stitch and sew it to the Ultrasuede right to the middle of the Wing filigree under the Chaton Montee.

As for the bezelling you can follow the steps of the Square Stitch Bezel GIFT tutorial which you can find in the Bead Shop.

I used 19 pieces of D11 beads for the initial round.

9. Work with 4-bead backstitch and sew R15C beads around the Wing filigree.

10. Using backstitch, sew little picots with R15B beads between the BIC3A beads.

11. Using backstitch, sew BIC3B beads between the middle R15B beads of the previous row.

12.

• Carefully make a cut around the motif.
• Cut out the shape from a piece of cardboard paper. Cut it a few mm smaller and glue it to the back.
• Cut out the motif again from a 2nd piece of Ultrasuede, this will be the backing. Glue it on the back and make one final cut all around the beaded motif.
• Finish the edge with one row of R15C beads.

13. This is how your jewel looks now.

14. Decoration with chains:

• For adding the chain decoration start with the middle piece. Cut a piece of chain of 3,5 cm.
• Sew the chain to the middle R15 of the edge.
• Cut 4 more pieces of chain, each of them should be 0,5 cm shorter then the other.
• Sew them to R15 edge beads, equally spaced.
• Repeat it on the other side as well.
• Make a knot and trim.
• Attach the Drop to the middle chain with a jump ring.

15. Make the beaded chain with a new thread.

• Carefully measure the distance to each side from the top centre.
• Exit from a R15 edge bead. Pick up R15 + NAV + R15 + FP3 + R15 + R11 + R15 + FP3 + R15. Go through the second hole of the NAV. Pick up R15 and sew into the corresponding R15 on the edge. Repeat the thread path, but skip the middle R11.
• Sew to the middle R11 and start stringing the beaded chain. When you have reached the desired length, make a circle with seed beads. Go back through all the beads in the chain once more to reinforce. Cut the thread or go over the edge to the other side and repeat the steps to make the second part of the beaded chain.
• Attach a clasp with jump rings to the beaded circles at the end of the chain.

I hope you enjoyed this beading journey. Play with different beads and decorative elements, change the colors if you want, enjoy the creative process and your new jewel.

Happy beading!