I had an idea once for a piece of beaded jewelry. It was based on a piece that I had seen in an online auction catalog from one of the big auction houses, and it was a gorgeous diamond and enamel necklace from the early part of the twentieth century. It didn't look too hard to re-create using Swarovski crystal rivolis and crystal frames. For an eighteen-inch necklace, I only had to make peyote-stitch bezels around twenty-eight 12mm Swarovski rivolis. Easy, right?

Wrong.

I hadn't really had much practice making peyote-stitch bezels around rivolis when I thought up this project, but I figured I'd give it a go. While my son (who was still an infant at the time) took his morning nap, I sat down with the bag of rivolis and some cylinder beads and thought I'd whip up a few peyote-stitch bezels. It turned out to be much more of a learning experience than I expected! For starters, I had no idea how many cylinder beads I should be using for the base ring of each peyote-stitch bezel. Then I found that my bezels slipped around as I was trying to stitch them. I couldn't get the Swarovski rivolis to sit in them. The bezels slipped off too easily when I tried to attach them to the crystal frames. If anything, it was definitely a lesson in frustration.

I finally sat down and wrote out each step in making my peyote-stitch bezels. It wasn't easy, but with a lot of trial and error and lots of phone calls to one of my beading friends, I finally came away with a set of tips for making better peyote-stitch beaded bezels:

1. Don't use a very long piece of thread. You can make a secure peyote-stitch bezel using an arm's length (about five feet or less) of beading thread. If you plan on adding beaded embellishment to your peyote-stitch bezel, add a new thread. When you pick up your cylinder beads for the base ring, make sure you leave a good length of thread, around six or seven inches, for the tail. Using the tail to stitch a row of size 15^o seed beads around the back of the rivoli after the bezel has been completed will make it fit better.

3. Tension is also very important when making a peyote-stitch bezel. Beading too tightly can result in a bezel that will have too much beading thread showing between beads around the outermost edge. Beading too loosely can result in a peyote-stitch bezel that will fall off the rivoli too easily. The trick is to maintain a nice, even tension throughout the project.

5. Use a row of size 15^o seed beads on both the top AND the bottom of the bezel after it has been completed. Pull a little on your beading thread as you add these beads, and they will make your peyote-stitch bezel tighter around your rivoli. (You did leave a nice long tail to use, right?) When adding your size 15^o seed beads, sort through the beads as you pick them up. Try to use thinner beads instead of the thick seed beads. It might seem like a lot of extra work when you're trying to pick through a pile of those tiny size 15^o seed beads, but it will be worth it when you have a tight and secure peyote-stitch bezel around your beautiful Swarovski crystal rivoli!

Like any skill worth knowing, learning how to make a good peyote-stitch bezel around a rivoli requires some practice. But take the time to make your peyote-stitch bezels the best they can be, and you'll find that you're on your way to making heirloom-quality jewelry!

Bead Happy,

Jennifer

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