Beaded Cabs

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