Peyote Stitch

Flat Peyote

To start with we will be creating a small two dimensional rectangle of peyote. This style of peyote stitch can be used to create bracelets, amulets, bands for Christmas baubles, tapestries etc.

Now as you will see, there are two options, Even Count or Odd Count. So which one do you choose? Remember how we said that with peyote, vertically all the beads are in line. These lines are called columns. Take a look at a pattern, if the amount of columns comes to an even number (i.e. 2, 4, 6 etc) then you are using Even Count, if its an odd amount (i.e. 1, 3, 5 etc) you are using Odd Count.

Even count and odd count are actually the same stitch apart from one small difference, how we deal with that extra odd bead. Some beaders will avoid Odd Count Peyote, not knowing how to deal with this extra bead and miss out beading some fantastic designs because of this. (By that way, as you will see, its easy, don't be like them!).

You might wonder why designers would choose an odd count pattern when even count is more straight forward. Odd count patterns allow for symmetrical work, and in 3D construction especially you will need symmetry.

Round Peyote

By now you know how to create Flat Peyote (even and odd). But now we can do something even more exciting, we can start beading in the round! In flat peyote we work left to right, right to left. In round peyote we are working in a loop, going around the loop until you get back to the beginning of the row.

We will first start with Tubular Peyote, which is unsurprisingly used to make a tube! Tubes can be made into bracelets, necklaces and with the knowledge you learn later even boxes!

So things are getting very interesting, we can now create strips of flat rectangles and even tubes!

Let's start changing the shape of our beadwork by increasing and decreasing the beads we pick up.

Increasing/Decreasing Peyote

You might be thinking that things might start getting a little tricky now but increasing and decreasing is easy. Take a look at our examples!

So increasing and decreasing is not that bad either! What can we do now? We can create lots of different shapes!

Making Shapes

That's right, by using your new found ability to increase and decrease you can now make almost any shape you can think of, simply by changing the amount of beads we are picking up. Here are examples of some of the many shapes you can now make...

So now you know all this you might be thinking how on earth do I put all this together? Well this is where ThreadABead comes in! Check out our peyote patterns and let us guide you through how to use your new found skills to create beautiful beadwork pieces you can be proud of!

Here are some of the designs you can now make: