With our new special issue, Beading Basics: Right-Angle Weave, on newsstands, I’m more aware of any special attention this stitch gets. So I was quite pleased this weekend when I found that Illinois’ The News Gazette ran an article about Mary Winters-Meyer’s beaded shawl, which involved single-needle right-angle weave as well as a stitch of Mary’s own invention.

The shawl is featured in Valerie Hector’s book The Art of Beadwork: Historic Inspiration, Contemporary Design and was inspired by a Papua New Guinea sireu, a kind of apron that a husband gives his bride before their wedding. Weighing in at 10 pounds, the shawl took Mary 40 hours a week for eight months to stitch.

To learn more about right-angle weave and the endless possibilities of this stitch, take a peek into Beading Basics: Right-Angle Weave. To learn more about Mary’s shawl and other works, visit her Web site, beadingbanshee.com.