To make a peyote beaded bead without worrying about tension, use a lightweight resin bead as the core. I chose a pretty light purple resin bead in a drum shape, and used crystal aurora borealis size 8/0 beads so that the color of the resin would show through. It’s hard to see the pattern that I’m using on the bead above, so I made a sample bead with higher contrast so that you can see if your pattern is working up properly:
Here are the steps:
1. Pick up 1 size 8/0 seed bead and 2 size 11/0 delicas, five times. Pass the thread through all the beads again and tie a knot so that you have a tight circle of beads.
2. Pick up 1 size 8/0 and 2 size 11/0s, and pass the needle and thread through the 2 size 11/0s of the previous row. Continue, allowing the bead to spiral until it is as tall as desired. Slip the resin bead in at any point.
3. Tighten down the last row by adding only a size 8/0 and passing through the 2 size 11/0s of the previous row five times. pass through all the beads in that last row again and pull snug.
4. Work the thread back down to the bottom to tie off with the other end.
String ‘em up as you please!Note: Here is a tutorial where I show how to string them up like this
Copyright 2008 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.
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Comments
The drum beads that I used for the core are 10 mm across. They are a tiny bit taller than they are wide, but the size actually varies a bit since they are cottage industry beads from overseas. I got them from Rings & Things.