Hello Fellow Beaders

[LummiGirl]

:)

Hello all. I know this isn't the proper forum to be using to make my first introductions, but since I will be reading posts here primarily, I wanted to say my greetings here.

I have been beading for almost a year and a half now, and I love it. I do all sorts of arts and crafts, but beading has kept my interest for a while now.

One thing I do want to find out from others who have used the peyote stitch, is if their pattern twists? For example, if I was beading the letter "I", the completed look of it would be at an angle and not straight up and down. I was told by a lady at my local bead store that this occurance was very common of that stitch. I have seen other peoples work, whose pattern stays straight up and down. What am I doing wrong/differently, or am I? I know that I do not pull the thread tightly to cause this, so I am not sure what to do. Any and all advise is much appreciated.

[OLChemist]

In my experience, six things can cause this:

1) Pulling too tight. Not an issue based on what you are saying.

2) Beading on something that is not padded enough to 'cup' the beads and keep them from slipping - like bare wood or glass. If you absolutely must bead on something smooth, waxing your thread heavily and wrapping a few times around every 1/3-1/2 in will help keep it from slipping. But, it is much better to pad surface, even a little ultrasuede will work.

3) Having too many or too few beads to go around the object you are beading. Care need to be taken with the selection of the number of beads.

4) Not going back through the last bead when you finish a row and just starting straight into the new row. This causes a cumulative loose area, spiralling around the piece. This will twist your design, slowly but surely.

5) Badly matched bead sizes. I have had real problems with this with the tiny antique beads I use. You need to make a real effort to keep beads you use close to the same size. In Czech beads, dark reds, dark greens, and whites seem to be thinner than is usual for a given size and med blue and some yellows and oranges are thicker. In really severe cases of size mismatch, you can occassionally use two thin beads, instead of one to even out the tension. I had to do this on a recent peice of mine, where the only red I had in 18/o was very thin.

6) The extra bead (usually about three days worth of work back). Sometimes an extra bead creeps in and doesn't get noticed until you're trying to figure out why the design is crooked. I have seen brave souls snap the offedning bead with an awl. The two times I tried this I: a) created a tension problem in the form of a nice loop of danglely white thread, 2) cut right through the thread with the sharp glass fragments. My teacher destained this method and told me to slap anyone who had their nose close enough to my work to see it. Me I just pick it out if it is really a problem.

Anyway, that's my $0.02.

OLChemist

[Mato Winyan]

I know that when I started out I would tend to put my "I" beads on by adding them every row instead of every other row. Every other row the beads look : and doing every row they would go \. Hope that doesn't confuse you.;)

[Blackbear]

I snap that extra bead off with a pair of needle nose pliers..but even then you are gambling whether or not you end up cutting that thread when the bead breaks in half... but that is repairable without taking everything apart as well.

[wyo_rose]

Well, when you break a bead, be sure to grasp it horizontally, and not vertically. Kinda like breaking a side of it off, instead of trying to break the whole thing at once.

[LummiGirl]

Thank you all for your imput. Reading back to OLChemist, I am not sure what my issue is. :(

#4 - I know I go back through the last bead, but this might be somthing I have to further look into

I might have to sit down with someone who does peyote style beadwork, and whose pattern stays straight up and down, to see where I am going wrong. Thank you all again.
:)

[Blackbear]

well...if it is just twisting around... which happens to me at times... then just kinda twist to realign it... that's what I do.

[LummiGirl]

I have done that for a few pieces, but what I didn't like about doing that is my threads showed a little bit more. It got a bit gappy. Know what I mean?

I think I am just doomed to have my patterns come out at an angle. Which is ok for the most part, but some patterns I would like to stay straight up and down.