Popcorn Cabochon Necklace

My new necklace with popcorn cabochons and Kabela Designs filligree.

     My friend Michael Harrington of Beads that Bounce gave me one of his new popcorn cabochons to play with and, of course, I had to make a necklace to wear to Bead and Button.
     These beads came about thanks to a male shopper at one of the bead shows who was admiring Michael's cold inclusion beads.  Michael explained that because no heat was involved in the process, he could include anything he wanted.  The shopper said "Oh yeah?  Can you include popcorn?"  Thus started Michael's experiements and resulting new beads.
    

My first effort: a beaded bezel


I first tried a beaded bezel but it seemed to look too busy.  Then I thought about the beautiful filigree pieces from Kabela Design and went shopping at their booth at the Innovative Beads Expo in between my bead crochet classes.

First wrapping effort.

Beth and I played around with a few things; surprisingly the new sliver-plated components looked best.  The first was a lovely component that we tried wrapping around the cabochon. 

Here is the back of the component.

 It was nice but then I stumbled onto the component below.

The winner.

I decided to just glue the cabochon to the filigree with good, old E6000 for a clean look.  I wove some fine-gauge, craft wire across the hole to give the glue more surface to grab onto.

Back of glued cabochon with woven wire support.

I glued a piece of ultrasuede over the wire support to make things look nicer.  I played with a number of necklace treatments but they looked too fussy.  So a nice silver chain, some cute Czech, pressed glass beads, a little wire work and I had a new necklace and earrings to wear.