Just keep beading...

I've done a tiny bit more on the bag: this is the 'back' facing side with a lovely marquise shaped green goldstone cabochon from Designer Cabochons. I thought it was great in this position as 1) it is quite big, and therefore covers more space, and 2) it is a low profile cabochon so doesn't protrude too much. Having sewn a large Swarovski Navette to the front flap, I realised how dimensional parts of the embroidery will be, since the height of crystals can be significant (but compensated for by the depth of the facets and the reflections)

The bezel is backstitched rather than peyote, and I have used peel'n'stick for a firm connection to the foundation. I used light bronze size 8 beads (Miyuki 457L) and green iris 11s (Miyuki 468) for the securing rounds. A favourite 4mm Firepolish (copper lined olive) from Yashma looked good around this and then I found some green iris hex beads so used them for a bit of texture. The leaf beads have been in my stash a long time and are green metallic, and I broke out the good stash with some freshwater pearls from Raphael Beads, my local bead shop. I'm happy so far (but there is still a long way to go). I coloured the foundation with some marker pens as the painted colour still seemed too light and showed a lot. I think I'm trying to camouflage the area I still have to fill!

Anyway I will save the front flap of the bag for a later post, but it is also coming along, albeit slowly. 'Just keep beading...' is my mantra, hopefully I will get this completed within a year!