Follow-up, Beadwoven Bail

Questions posed by my Beadwoven Bail post a few days ago have prompted this follow-up.

As a reminder - here is the original lampwork bead, unadorned:

Gorgeous, right? I didn't hesitate for a second when I plopped down the $$ for this beauty. I love the colors, and their swirling richness!

The bead gave me issues, though, because I would hold it, and rub it, and ponder it, but couldn't figure out a way to string it! Those 2 asymmetrical holes at the top were mocking me! So, ultimately, I decided to sacrifice this bead to the bead shop, and offer it up for sale.

Where it proceeded to stump everyone, and it sat, unsold, for about 4 years. (Yeah, I've had this bead for a long time!)

I finally came to accept that it was never going to sell if I didn't make it more functional, and that is when I started playing around with different bail options, finally hitting upon the solution I blogged about a couple of days ago:

One of my customers actually saw me stitching this, almost finished, and purchased it before it was even done.

So, sorry ladies, but I can't show you the finished necklace! But I'm sure she made something gorgeous - all her creations are wonderful! And this beautiful bead went to a wonderful home!

Beadwoven Bail

This gorgeous artisan lampwork bead (luscious swirling colors!) presented a beading challenge - the 2 holes at the top needed to be turned into a bail:

I chose some burgundy metallic 11/0s, and started by using peyote stitch to weave a circular band through the 2 holes, front to back. Then I started stitching a freeform peyote bail from the back of the circle, increasing as needed to widen the bail. I also started adding in some 11/0 Delicas for a little texture.

view from the back - just starting to increase

Once the bail was as tall and wide as I wanted, I started to decrease, gradually taking it down to meet the circular band I had stitched through the 2 holes, this time meeting at the front. I connected it to the band, and my bail was complete:

I chose to make the bail wider in the back than the front. I think it turned out pretty well!