Q I purchased some angular stone beads at a show, only to get them home and realize they weren't beads - they were cabochons. Can you give me some tips on bezeling these with peyote stitch so I can incorporate them into a necklace? - Samantha Mitchell

A When working with sharp angles, the sizes and styles of beads is important to consider. Here are a few examples of what I came up with using seed beads.

In photo a, I worked the first two rounds using size 10 cylinder beads, then dropped down to size 11 seed beads for the next round, and then size 15 seed beads for the last round. This gradual decrease in bead size allows the beadwork to gently snug up around the sides of the cab, without having to add too many rounds, which would cover the face of the stone, hiding some of the detail.

 

For the cab in photo b, I used the same size beads to work peyote, but I built  the corners to give the bezel a more customized look. You can accomplish this by stitching through the previous rounds instead of adding beads for every stitch. This way only the corners of the bezel are coming up over the top of the cab, and most of the face is exposed.

 

I thought it might be cool to use seed beads to mimic the encased look of a wire-wrapped cab. I worked the first two rounds with size 11 seed beads, then switched to size 15 seed beads for the next round. This created a narrower bezel, which would not hold the stone in place. I used size 15 beads to stitch a free-form netting over the face of the stone to secure it photo c. You could just catch the corners in the netting if you don't want to hide too much of the face of the cab.

 

Using smaller seed beads gives the bezel more flexibility, especially when surrounding a sharp corner. Larger seed beads may not cover as nicely, as shown in photo d. Notice how the bezel on the left shows much more thread than the one on the right. There is only a slight difference in size between the two beads, but that, along with the more cylindrical shape of the beads on the left, makes it more difficult for the beadwork to wrap nicely around the bezel. So, choose your beads carefully when you stitch peyote bezels.

 

Anna Elizabeth Draeger
Associate Editor
Bead&Button magazine