Cabochons!
You asked - we deliver. Cabochons are a domed topped stone with a flat back - and you see them used in those spectacular ads on the backs of beading magazines where someone has spend hundreds of hours beading those wonderful bead collars - riffing off the colours and patterns in a central stone cab.
The general technique is to glue down the cabochon to some super-suede or some Lacey's stiff stuff, and then start beading a "bezel" around it to hold it in place, and then embellish from there. There's a tutorial here for more details.
Of course - cabochons have been mounted in traditional fabricated metal jewelry for eons, and can also be used in metal clay projects - but we do NOT recommend firing these. (Make the piece first and add the stone after.) We have no idea what will happen to them when fired. Except the dyed turquoise howlite - I can tell you what happens to that! It disappears! Just a little pile of white ash left. :-(
