I'm not a big authority, and mostly I just offer common sense. I don't
really believe in right answers.

1) I've never used Lucy's stiff stuff so I'm not precisely sure what it is.
I've used a stiffer weight of pellon for backing. And I know people who
like to use super suede, which is much easier to go through than leather. I
can't imagine a needle heavy enough to go through leather and still fine
enough for beads.

2) Not sure

3) I don't worry a lot about conditioning my thread. But I only use Nymo
from a spool, and I pull at my thread as I work. Also, I always bring my
thread of choice when I take a class.

4) And yes, you can, grammatically, peyote a cab.

Tina




"EL" wrote in message
...
I just took a class on beading cabochons. It was not, I fear, very well
taught, and left me with a bunch of questions.

Question 1 is about backing. The directions I have always read said to
glue
your cab to Lacy's Stiff Stuff. We just glued ours to leather, which was
a
bit hard to sew through, then just glued another scrap of leather on top
of
that to cover up the stitch lines. This resulted in a fairly thick,
fairly
bumpy back since the leather had been wadded up in a bag. I'm assuming
Lacy's Stiff Stuff would have been easier and neater for the first layer,
but I'm also wondering if any non-wover interfacing would do as well?

Question 2 is about making a bale. We peyote'd a bail directly off the
top
of the cab, which I didn't much like. I've taken my off, put a picot
around
the edge of the whole thing (and peyote'd around much of the back to cover
up most of the bumpy ugly leather). I'm probably going to reinforce the
two
top picots and come off them to attach to a necklace. How do you attach a
beaded cab?

Question 3 is about thread. This is the second class I've taken where the
teacher didn't bother to either condition or stretch her thread (Nymo --
sorry, Sooz) before beginning. I am pretty compulsive about conditioning
and stretching. Is this just a matter of preference? Or is there a
reason
I go through my stretching and conditioning rituals?

Question 4 is for the Grammar Curmudgeons amongst us: Can I use peyote as
a
verb?

Inquiring stitchers want to know ...

Elise