Pick a large lightweight wood or plastic bead for the base of this fun project. Since my wooden bead was painted blue, I decided not to fight against fate, but picked a good selection of blue beads in various sizes for most of the covering. I also threw in some contrasting beads for fun!
Materials & Tools
Large wood or plastic bead to cover
Nymo 0 thread
Delicas and/or Czech seed beads in sizes 15/0, 11/0, 8/0, or even 6/0 as desired
Beading needle
1 Loop the thread through the hole of the large bead several times, and tie a knot. These threads will be covered as you work.
2 String on beads to reach from hole to hole, tie off at the top, go back through the hole and repeat several times.
3 Begin to weave beads off of the foundation strings, using peyote, square stitch, or whatever you wish. I used peyote.
4 When all the strings are several rows of beads wide, begin to connect from string to string with peyote stitch.
5 Use different sized beads to fill in all spaces except for the hole through the large bead.
6 Here are a few shots of the finished bead from different angles. It's hard to see the hole through the large bead, but it is still there. You can now add a wire through the hole to create a pendant, or you can string the large bead as part of a necklace.
Copyright 2009 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
OK, really, working with beads is highly addictive, so even though I recommend it, I just want you to be warned :-)
Thanks,
Shirley