Fun with Peyote Stitch

One of the other things I've been playing with are beads. I think I may have finally figured out Peyote stitch. I've never taken the time to learn various beading techniques - there are tons of them - preferring to come up with my own designs. There are advantages to coming up with your own technique - you are the only one who knows how to do it and you get to express your individuality as an artist. However, there are disadvantages also - namely the amount of time spent pulling apart creations that aren't working right. I probably "reinvented the wheel" more than once - some of the techniques I've come up with have probably already been done, with easy instructions available...but where's the fun in that?!

I didn't want to make anything too involved or big - only some accents for other pieces I'm working on. I ended up trying different types of beads and different threads and wires - and I had a lot of fun. Take a quick look at some of my finished little accents...

I've tried like mad to add numbers to the picture in order to make identification easier for you - however, I'm apparently dumber than a rock. I've tried in four different photo editing programs and couldn't do it. I've been thinking about getting PhotoShop - there are tons of things I'd love to do digitally - but it isn't in the budget. Spending the last hour trying to make it work has definitely increased the priority level of PhotoShop though!

Here is a close-up of the pieces - since two of them are actually cylindrical I changed their orientation to show a different view.

The large blue circle in the center is actually a piece of navy velvet that I imprinted with heat and a dragonfly stamp. Very fun!