First forays into soutache beadwork

I ordered a few types of soutache cord after seeing myriad gorgeous photos online and was immediately overwhelmed with indecision. I've seen other bloggers write that rayon cord doesn't snag while stitching, but the polyester can sometimes cause trouble. I got a few colors of both and didn't realize I'd ordered such a hot pink shade of the polyester. It isn't a color I would normally have chosen and, being the more potentially problematic of the two types, I figured I wouldn't lose out much if I used it as my soutache guinea pig. Most of the beads in these little pieces are acrylic, which I also tend to stay away from. The combination of the two materials made me worry a lot less about what mistakes I might make and, as a result, I had a lot of fun being adventurous in my color scheme and shapes! Here are the results so far!

I did find that the polyester dimpled in some places, but I think that's as much my inexperience and too-tight stitching as it is the cord. The metallic gold cord was also a bit challenging because the outer layer seems to be made of a thin, woven, plastic-y material and I was worried about puncturing the strands and causing fraying. My worries didn't seem to manifest themselves, though, which was a relief. I think I did alright considering these were my very first attempts. I learned the hard way to stitch the cords together before fixing them to a cabochon bead, as you can see on the middle piece. my big white stitches are showing themselves off. I'm still really happy with the experiment and I hope I can one day be as fearless with all my materials and not just the ones I know I'll use once in a blue moon.