Princely Soutache and morning surprise!

A while back I tried to post a picture of Marilyn's soutache brooch using one of my buttons... It was a project in the works then and the picture wouldn't load at that time... BUT she has finished it now and isn't it absolutely gorgeous.  Soutache really seems to lend itself well to buttons.. AND isn't he a handsome devil indeed!
I'm so grateful to Marilyn for sending me this photo... It's fun seeing what happens to the buttons once they leave here.













Everyone knows the clematis vines with the huge (gaudy) flowers. They are much too flamboyant for me... Fewer gardeners are familiar with the clematis I do love.  The species   with small flowers and there are a wide variety of  them....blooming from early spring until fall.  I have them throughout the garden.

But it is the rare gardener  familiar with bush clematis....clematis integrifolia.  They do NOT vine.  The form a bushy clump about 24" tall covered with flowers.  I had two (one blue and one white) at the back of the garden.  I lost the white one but I moved the blue one up by the house last year and it survived and is blooming now.. I had forgotten where I had planted it but found it this morning.... Hooray.


I had planned  to spend the entire day working on the door but the morning is already gone with cleaning chicken coop and arranging water system to DH's corn patch.  I'll have a bite to eat and spend the afternoon working on the door...

Fantastic Soutache Tutorial

Remember the soutache jewelry from the other day... Well I have a huge hug and thank you for Jocelyne Ausseil  who found this fantastic tutorial
which is also in French but has lots and lots of great photos.

http://www.oceaniecreations.fr/blog/schema-bijoux-perles-broderie-a-la-soutache/

In fact the photos are so great that I wanted to print it all to keep for future reference... BUT I can only get it to print pages 1 and 2 and then all the comments...  Problem solved!! Both Kerry and Karen sent it to me in PDF format...  Thank you!

Here are a couple pieces by French artist Anneta Valious, check out her site.  Here is another site with slide show of soutache jewelry by Dori Csengeri   I know that somewhere before long I want to adapt this in CQ... It just says PEACOCK to me...  Can't you just see a long tail of this braid and beads????

After weeks of occasional deliberation I finally picked my word for 2012... will post what and why in a couple days... 

I can see possibilities....

I suppose "soutache jewelry" has been around a long time but I just really noticed it. After seeing some earrings in a thrift store and a brooch on the internet, I'm thinking this is something that could be incorporated into crazyquilting.  I can see it in paislies, birds, flowers etc. and I have a lot of those tiny cylindrical beads that I find difficult to use and they look great in here... Sometimes it incorporates lots of beads such as on the left here...but most times I've seen it with just the soutache braids with few or no beads in it.

I know it is hard to believe that's there something for which there is not a book, but I have not been able to find anything with instructions for this art form...  There are quite a few sites selling the jewelry though.  One source said it was an art form mostly found in France and Russia....

Isn't it just gorgeous.... I have a lot of cordings and soutache braids already.  Does anyone do this??? Does anyone know of a book with instructions..? I imagine it is similar to bead embroidery techniques.

P.S. Carol is right in her comment...  This site does have one good pictorial tutorial limited to one bracelet.. http://pivoineperles.canalblog.com/ Unfortunately even if you use Google translator it's all in French...I do have a friend who can translate it when she returns from vacation.  Be sure to check out her gallery if you visit this site..

 In response to Susie's comment...all the braid are stitched flat side to flat side..unlike goldwork which is mostly couching.. But the look has a similarity to both goldwork and bead embroidery..