Seven Stitches

Like many beaded pieces, I started this with one direction in mind and ended up following the beading muse to a totally different and unintended destination.

A one-, two- and three-drop peyote seed bead and bugle bead bracelet was what I started. Fifteen or so rows into it, I realized that since I was using bugle beads, which are notorious for cutting threads, I should have doubled the thread. Instead of undoing it, I rolled it into a tube and it became the bail around the one tortoise shell ring that was left after this piece was finished.

The tube alone lacked something, so I kept beading. One thing led to another and it became a pendant using ladder, brick, and flat N’debele stitches. I wanted the chain to be made of the same beads, but I didn’t want it to be boring. The center piece of the chain is tubular N’debele that transitions to a spiral rope stitch. The transition point is covered with tubes of one- and two-drop peyote.

A magnetic clasp is hidden in a tube of ladder-stitched bugle beads with N’debele spears on each side.