Jewels!

The beads I needed to continue with my goblet arrived yesterday morning so I spent some more time on it, around another 7 hours or so, plus another hour this morning so that I'd got enough done to show you.

I was so impatient to start adding some crystals that I figured out where I needed to place them almost as soon as they arrived.  It took a couple of attempts to finally get them so I was happy with how they sat in the beadwork but once I'd figured it out, I added some golden glass pearls in the same way.  This morning I decided it needed some smaller splashes of colour and settled on red seed beads to provide it.  Adding them was actually more of a challenge as I had to work many rows in from the edge and still try to keep the beadwork flat to the base of the glass.  Here is a pic of how it looks now:

If you look closely at this next pic you can see that there are very few increases in the beadwork.  I've mostly been just adding extra beads per stitch as, not only does this make it easier to stitch, it also makes quite an interesting pattern.

You will also notice that where the pearls and crystals have been added, it has caused 'bends' in the straight lines out from the stem.  At first this really bothered me but now I think it maybe adds interest.  What do you think?  As you can see I'm getting really close to the edge of the base now and this is making me slightly apprehensive as I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the beadwork to sit around the edge tightly enough to hold it in place.  I'm debating whether to try and bead the underside too, or maybe just a small bit around the underside edge.  It will have to be trial and error to decide it for me, I think.  Then it'll be on to beading the bowl of the glass which will provide many  more challenges, I'm sure! :o)