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Treasure Island Books

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

PURPLE BUTTERFLY 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 saw several other similar cabochons
recently on eBay with different-colored backgrounds. Be that as it
may, I thought it was pretty.

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 and
the butterfly's wings come up about 1/8" from the base. 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 3/16".

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.