Cabochons for Bead Embroidery

I've been having a lot of fun with cabochons and bead embroidery of late, and I've probably got a zillion cabs now. OK, maybe not a zillion, but definitely a whole bunch. Agates and jaspers are my favorites, but I also have a few more unusual cabs.

Gem Show Finds

I haven't been to a gem show in probably a couple of years, but I have a few interesting cabs. My absolute favorite is an ocean jasper...or should I say "was"? The last time I took it out, I saw a tag on the back, which had the price on it. So, I was scraping off the tag and crack! Into three pieces it went. I did keep them, though, with the thought of maybe I'd be able to do something with them one day.

Back to Ebay

Gem shows only happen once a year where I live, so it's to ebay for more cabs. To the right are two Botswana agates that I bought a little while ago. I love the almost 3-D look of the one on the right. It's hard to tell from the photo (I guess I'm not much of a photographer), but the "waves" to the one of the far right have a really amazing look up close.

What else in my treasure-trove? Let's see, I got some additional agates and some ocean jasper. Darn. I can't remember what kind of agates they were...but it will come back to me. At any rate, here are the ocean jaspers.

They are 20mm in diameter each. I had originally thought of making a bead embroidery bracelet from them, but they are a little too dissimilar for that For this particular auction, the cabs themselves weren't shown -- instead it was something along the lines of "the cabs you receive are similar to the ones in the photo". But hey, I only paid 99 cents for them, so maybe I'll go and get another couple more of these auctions.

Oh darn, even though I have a zillion (and not to even mention the shells I gathered and am playing with), I just gotta go browse some more. I don't know if that one seller is still around -- 99 cents + free shipping was quite a deal -- but it's time to feed the need. If one cannot have too many beads, the same applies to items used to make jewelry in general -- wouldn't you agree!