Bead Embroidered Collar design is evolving

I had some time to bead at the weeekend so my collar is coming along very nicely. It took several attempts to measure up and customise the template that Sherry Serafini works to in 'The Art of Bead Embroidery' and ensure that it fitted me and the sheets of Lacy's Stiff Stuff and ultrasuede backing. Now I have this template I can use it to speed up future projects. The Lacy's is great for glueing cabochons - ultrasuede is good but this just has the edge in drying speed. So far I've bezelled my cabochons with peyote stitch, using delicas and size 15 seed beads as you can see here. As mentioned, I glued them in place with multi- purpose glue (Wilkinson's own, perfect glue but the fumes are quite strong) so they don't need the peyote for security - I just love the intricate look of this style of bezel and will probably use it in most of my designs somewhere.

Now the cabachons are in place, the colour scheme is changing somewhat from how I envisaged -  the peach beads that I was planning to use now don't look quite right. The design is evolving to be very green, gold and black based, and much darker than originally planned, so that's the way I'm going with it. This photo was taken when I'd completed the first row of backstitch round the cabachons on the right hand side, using size 11 seed beads and hex-cuts. Now that part is finished,  I've been laying out beads and smaller cabs and taking photos to see which feel right, and am now have the collar in my kitchen to look at so I can think about it and have a play whenever I go past.

Ultrasuede or Lacey's Stiff Stuff?

I am busy planning my collar, and after my blue shell cabachon cuff I am having a rethink about which materials to use.
I usually embroider on ultrasuede; it feels great to the touch whilst working, comes in many colours, is flexible and as with my cuff, it can be left unbeaded as part of the design. I started using it as an economical option - I bought a pack of about 100 off-cuts from the US, which are perfect for pendants and smaller cuffs. Now I'm moving onto larger beaded cuffs and collars larger sized pieces are needed.
During the beading of my cuff, it became easier to stitch the more surface I beaded, and the stiffer it became. I also doubt that the beadwork would have needed as much manipulation to attach it to the cuff blank if the beading foundation had been stiffer. It will be interesting to see how the shrinkage compares between the two foundations and a nice option to be able to draw on a design to bead on.

So despite resisting to start with I'm going to order some Lacey's in the largest size and go from there.