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EMMA BROOCH

This is my first attempt at beading around a cabochon; not
perfect but I'm pretty proud of it.

This brooch belonged to my maternal grandmother, whose
name was Emma, and it's the only thing I have of hers. I've
treasured it all my life and it's very special to me. With the
exception of Granny and my mother, no one else in my
family is important to me (for a variety of reasons). I came
close to losing it once; an aunt insisted it belonged to her
daughter and tried to take it from me, claiming I'd stolen it.
As it turned out, Granny had had two such brooches and
had given the other to my cousin (hers was a different
picture). I refused to part with mine and it was the first time
I'd stood up to any adult in my family, much less this horrid
aunt. I have to admit doing so gave me an exhilarating
feeling of self-confidence! That unpleasant incident only
added to the specialness of this piece.

It is some sort of ceramic and I believe the lady's portrait is
hand-painted, although this photo doesn't show that. I've
no idea how old it is; at least from the 1930s, I'm guessing,
and possibly older.

I'm pretty certain this was an inexpensive Woolworth's
piece of costume jewelry. Initially, the cabochon was
attached to a cheap brass or pot metal backing with glue
and four prongs holding it onto the front. On the front is
painted in gilt a rather fancy edging to mimic a frame. That
had chipped over the years and I've covered it with
beading.

In the 1980s I took this brooch to a jeweler for repair. The
pin had broken and the metal backing was loose. The
jeweler did a dreadful job of putting it in a simple (what I
thought at the time was) silver frame with a very weak pin.
It didn't take long for the pin to break and for it to become
obvious that the "silver" frame was cheap metal with a very
thin plating of silver. His soldering of the frame was inept
and there was even an obvious rough spot for no apparent
reason. And all that for $100! Needless to say, I was very
disappointed. But, since the jeweler was a client of my
boss back then and I was young and stupid, I never
complained about it.

For years the lady languished in my jewelry box until I
discovered beading this year. Following directions for
beading cabochons I found online, I spent a long and
happy evening working on this. It was much easier than I
had anticipated. I sort of made up the back part; I wanted
the cabochon to be held securely in the beaded frame. I
also chose not to paint the back; I want it to be obvious
that this is an old piece and whoever gets it after I'm gone
will know that. Thus, you can clearly see residual glue on
the back.

When I started the beaded frame, I had been able to
remove the "silver" backing part of the second framing job
but not the actual part around the edge. I thought it had
been glued on but figured I could just bead over it. I didn't
want to force it off the cabochon because I was afraid I'd
break the lady. As I was gently pushing the cabochon into
the half-finished beaded frame, though, the "silver" part
came away easily...much to my delight. That made it
easier to finish the beading.

It's been so nice to finally get to wear this brooch!

The beads used here are #11 glass Japanese seed beads
purchased for this project as well as a larger size (#8s,
perhaps?) I had in my stash. I didn't follow a pattern other
than the basic instructions I found online.