You have only 1 motif? Bead a brooch, of course!

My favourite answer to the question above is: bead a brooch, of course!

With the springtime that we are enjoying nowadays in the countries of most of our beaders the weather still asks for a jacket or coat. Long sleeves cover or arms and bracelets, but they give us another opportunity: to wear brooches.

Let’s embrace brooches and the vintage vibe that they help to achieve! Today I will share with you my favourite tips and tricks, and also a video – showing you three ways of how I am attaching a beaded motif to a suitable brooch base.

Picture: Crux motif

Do you find the decision to make a brooch hard, since it’s limiting you to wear your jewel on your coat? Think about this:

• A brooch is a surprisingly versatile accessory. You can pin it on your jacket, bag, hat, coat, or if it’s smaller, than even on your socks. I have a pair of fabric brooches that I pin to overknee socks.
• I ended up finishing my Linda motif: as a brooch, however, I pinned it to a bow tie that I found in a vintage store recently.

Picture: Linda motif

Do you like to wear pendants? You can have a jewel that is a pendant and brooch in one!

I was super happy when I discovered that there are components (special brooch + bail solutions) that make it possible to have a jewel as both. I like to use this for bead embroidery. The pin can be inserted under the backing, with only the closure peaking through, and when I need it, I can slide a thin chain through the loop.

Click here for the gold-colored and silver-colored versions of this handy component!

What do I need to make a brooch?

You need some type of pin, possibly in combination with other components. Attaching a simple brooch pin with holes directly to beads is tricky for two reasons. It’s not easy to find a good placement in alignment with the holes, moreover, there is a higher risk of making it look cheap, with the thread visible, and the pin clumsy.

One possible solution is to combine your beadwoven motif with embroidery. You can sew Ultra Suede behind the beaded motif. My preference in this case would be to glue waxed cardboard (like fancy chocolate paper or a lasagne box( to the Ultra Suede, and sew down some beads on the edge of the motif to these two layers at once. If you go for this, make sure to switch to a thicker needle (like the special embroidery needle from Tulip), as a thinner needle would deform when you push it through the cardboard.

If you are new to bead embroidery, I would like to recommend reading my article about all the essentials that you need. Besides inserting a pin under the backing you can also finish your embroidered pieces by gluing a whole filigree brooch base on the back. If you use leather or imitation leather, I recommend scratching the surface of the leather with a needle a few times where the glue goes to have better grip.

My favourite way of making brooches is to use filigree components.

The filigree can be a ready made filigree brooch or the combination of a filigree and a glued or sewn on brooch base. This second option is great if you’d like to use a historic filigree in your brooch. For more stability, you can glue a simpler filigree brooch base on the back of a historic filigree, so the surface for the glue is bigger, or you can back the filigree with Ultra Suede, as I explained above.

How can I attach the beaded motif directly to the filigree?

You have two options to choose from: glue and thread. As usually, both options have pros and cons. Gluing is faster, but it can become messy and it’s not possible to make an adjustment if your glue cured. However, it is worth to consider it, as a little bit of practice will help you make good decisions on the amount of glue that you need to add. It’s important not to overdo it, as too much would push through to the front side of the motif, but you need to add a generous amount to fix the beads well. I would recommend to try it a few times with a motif and brooch that are not your absolute favourites, until you get a sure hand.

I use a simple glue that works well with metal and glass, too, and it has a precision tip – I bought it in the hardware store, it’s not a special jeweller’s solution.

Picture: Crossing Borders motif

If you’d like to sew the motif on the filigree, consider using Fireline even if usually it’s not your first choice. It’s stronger and the Black Satin version blends in really well with the colour of the antique bronze brooch bases that are my favourites.

I know that it can sound challenging to do this at first, but believe me, the hardest part is to select your fav brooch base from so many nice ones – the stitches are easy to master! First I place my motif on the brooch and try to find beads on the edge of the motif that can be sew to the filigree. I prefer attaching seed beads instead of bigger shaped beads.

Picture: Samoa motif

Usually I use two variations of stitches, depending on the exact situation. With the first one I sew through the same bead from the same direction a few times, while going up and down through the holes of the filigree. With the second possibility I bead through back and forth.

Bellow, you can see a short video that I made for you to have a better understanding.

In the video: Nitti’s Mosaic Tulip

Where can I place the motif on the filigree?

As usually when it comes to creating: there are no rules that you can’t break! The easiest of course is to attach the motif to the middle. This is a good way to start until you get more confident. You don’t need to cover the whole filigree – it’s up to you how much would you like to show. The beads can cover most of the component with only a few details of the metal peaking through all around, or only a smaller area with the filigree playing a more important decorative role, too.

Picture: Donatella motif

The motif can also be placed partially on the filigree – I like this when I use a different shape than a simple circle or square.

There are also brooch components that are not exactly filigrees, but with a loop at the bottom provide a great opportunity to hang the beaded part under the metal. There will be more movement and playfulness in your jewel this way!

Picture: Ruxandra’s Fountain de Majorelle motif

Can I add something more? Of course!

According to a discussion we had recently in the Beadingschool Club, pretty much we are all big fans of hanging glass drops in metal settings under our components. And you can do the same with your brooch: adding a drop or even a crystal connector is just as easy as with an earring or pendant. If the loop of the component is turned the right way, you can open it with pliers and add it directly to the filigree. Otherwise you can sew it to the bottom of the beaded motif in the usual way.

Here you can find my cheat-sheet on the thread passes that you need for attaching metal components to beadwork.

Picture: Edmee motif

If your beaded motif is hanging under it, you can decorate the filigree further with a flat-back rhinestone. Use a smaller 7 mm and slightly bigger 11 mm Preciosa Chaton Rose, or remove a smaller, 4 mm big Preciosa sew-on component from the claw setting if you need a smaller one. To do so you need an office knife or a kitchen knife with thin edge. The rhinestone can be glued on the filigree – it requires a bit of practice to know the right amount of glue. Apply it on the whole surface of the crystal, and place it on a flat surface to dry.

Where to place the brooch base?

If it’s a bigger, heavier beaded motif, than the brooch base should be placed towards the top, with the bigger part of the motif hanging bellow it. This will prevent the brooch from buckling forward.

Picture: Samoa motif

Do you like the idea of starting to make beaded brooches? If yes, I would strongly recommend checking out our new Filigree Brooch Box with 17 different brooch bases. There are different designs and different colours (antique bronze and gold-coloured) included. The shapes and sizes vary, so if you have a collection of 17 brooches in your stash – I’m sure you’ll find a good fit for any beaded motif that you might have just finished.

For me, having brooch bases in my stash brings a liberating feeling: sometimes I don’t have enough time or beads to finish a full bracelet or a pair of earrings. Even if I don’t like making tiny pendant, this way I can have a finished jewel instead of an UFO (UnFinished Object) even if I bead only one motif.

How do you like the idea of making brooches? Have you ever beaded one? Show us in a comment 🙂 

Happy beading,
xxx Erika