Advancing Your Bead Weaving Skills

Beadshop continues its venture into bead weaving by adding more free projects to its collection and devoting more Facebook Live shows to this wonderful way to bead. More projects mean more techniques and stitches as well, all of which can be found in what we call our Seed Bead School. We have covered brick stitch, spiral rope, and peyote, all three of which are well-known bead weaving stitches. Now, you can add right angle weave, also referred to by the acronym RAW, to that list. RAW is a stitch that is a little more advanced, but if you have been following along with beadshops' Seed Bead School series, you are ready to give it a try.

Austin ~ Project and Sample by Emily Miller

Two free projects using RAW are now available for downloading. First, there's bright and cheery Austin, which combines size 11/0 seed beads in shades of topaz and also bright yellow along with size 6/0 Miyuki Baroque Pearls in a beautiful golden color. We recommend using Fireline as your stringing medium for these bracelets, which will require you to make multiple passes through some of the beads, because while Fireline is thin enough for use with seed beads, it's also very strong. 

New York, New York ~ Project and Sample by Emily Miller

New York, New York also uses beautiful 6/0 Miyuki Baroque Pearls, but this time in a silver color. Their organic shape and texture combined with a shiny pearlized finish make them look like natural pearls. However, they are a better choice to weave with since Miyuki strives to create beads with uniform holes. The smaller 11/0 seed beads in this project are shades of blue: Moody Blue, Eucalyptus, and Silver Gray Ceylon. 

One of the benefits to right angle weave stitch is that you can make chunky jewelry pieces that still have a lot of drape to them. Whichever one of these two new projects - Austin or New York, New York - that you decide to attempt, you will love the finished product.