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Treasure Island Books

Specializing in quality used and out-of-print books since the Twentieth Century

GREEN GODDESSES BROOCH

I bought this cabochon on eBay from a seller who claimed it was
"vintage" from about the 1950s or early 1960s. Its provenance is a
bit doubtful in my mind; I've seen several other similar cabochons
recently on eBay. Be that as it may, I thought it was pretty.
Originally, it was mounted in a cheap base metal setting which I
pried off.

This cabochon is made of molded plastic (or, if you prefer the more
marketable term, resin). As you can see, the design is bas relief. It
measures the typical 40 cm (about 1-5/8") tall X 30 cm (about 1-1/4")
wide for cabochons designed to be set into commercially-made
metal settings. The beaded edging extends about 1/8".

I first glued it to a stiff interfacing-like fabric known as Lacy's Stiff
Stuff." Next, I bead-embroidered one row around the cabochon.
From there on I stitched what amounted to a tubular peyote stitch
up, around and slightly over it. After that, I went back to the original
bead-embroidered row and used the peyote stitch to stitch
outwards.

This is a very basic stitching pattern of no particular design; note
that there's a definite ruffle to the edging. The angle the picture was
taken from makes it look like the edging is uneven but it's not.