Beaded Jewelry Design

Name That Beadwork: Win a Kit of Beads and Findings from Artbeads!

Tila beads, Magatamas, and dagger beads. Can you tell me what all three of these have in common? They are all glass beads that were included in this month's Beadwork magazine challenge kit from Artbeads! What would you name this ruffled herringbone
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Use a Little, Use a Lot: Just Use Some Crystal Beads In Your Next Beading Project!

Triangulations by Kathie Khaladkar Crystal beads are everywhere these days! When I was at the Tucson bead shows earlier this year, you couldn't turn around without seeing some glitz and glam, and walls and walls of sparkling crystal beads. Truthfully
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Happy Anniversary and a Giveaway!

I can hardly believe it, but yesterday marked one year since I started at Beading Daily ! It's been such an amazing year, and I've thoroughly enjoyed all the writing and beading that has gone along with it. Time flies when you're having fun
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Beaded Beads for Beadwork Magazine's 15th Anniversary!

What is it about beaded beads that captures our imagination? The Zen Buddhist in me loves the idea that beaded beads are beads that are made out of...well, more beads! The simplest beaded beads can be made from a strip of peyote stitch or brick stitch
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Herringbone Stitch: It's Not Just for Beads!

My first misguided attempts at making a herringbone stitch amulet bag were just plain ugly. But ever since then, I've been enthralled by the lovely pattern and texture of herringbone stitch when it's used in beadwork. Herringbone stitch as defined
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Things to Bead Around: Large Cabone Rings

These cabone rings can be found in any craft supply store with the yarn notions and make fabulous focal beads when covered with your favorite beading stitch! I'm a craft store junky. If I have to run into my local bead crafts store to pick up just
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Captured Crystal Cubes Earrings

For National Craft Month, I thought I would participate in the Fusion Beads 30 Day National Craft Month Challenge. The Day 1 challenge was, of course, to make a pair of earrings! And I just happened to have a pair of these lovely 14mm Swarovski crystal
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National Craft Month: Fusion Beads 30 Day Challenge

Today starts National Craft Month! I can't think of a better time to celebrate doing what we love best: beading and jewelry making! This morning, I opened my email to discover an invitation from Fusion Beads to participate in their 30 Day National
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Bead Table Wednesday: Downton Abbey-Inspired Beading

So, I have to admit it: I can't get enough of Downton Abbey. I'd seen a couple of blurbs about it, so when it popped up on my Netflix recommendations, I thought, why not? I was hooked after watching the first episode. Set at the turn of the last
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Bead Table Wednesday: Scatterbrained Beads

I think this winter is finally starting to get to me. We've had lousy conditions for doing any of the fun things that I love to do in the winter up here: it hasn't been cold enough for any serious ice fishing, and there's definitely not enough
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Bead Crafts: More Than Just Beaded Jewelry!

Bead crafts have been around for hundreds of years. The first bead crafts were probably related to adorning clothing with thousands of tiny beads, but artists soon discovered that they could use beads to craft other items such as baskets, jars, and ornaments
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Challenge Yourself for the New Year with Variations on Tubular Herringbone Stitch

Why do I love tubular herringbone? Oh, let me count the ways! I first discovered this fantastic stitch when I was just a beginning beader and for some reason, I had a tough time figuring out how to work flat herringbone. One of my beading friends suggested
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Free Beading Patterns: Where to Find Free Beading Patterns on Beading Daily

Free beading patterns - we all love 'em. Free beading patterns means that you can save your money for more beads, or you can just use up the beads you already have! And one of the great things about Beading Daily is that there are free beading patterns
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Ahead of the Curve: Shaping Your Beadwork for Necklace Making

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine who is new to beading told me that she had become bored and frustrated with her necklace making projects. She wanted a way to shape some of her favorite bead-weaving stitches for necklace making without having to learn
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Copyright Law, Ethics and Your Beadwork

My Back to Byzantium necklace has been the target of several instances of copyright violation. Which of the following statements is true: A. If you pay someone for a class to learn a particular design, you then own the rights to that design and can use
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Bead-weaving as Mindful Meditation - Can Bead-weaving Reduce Stress?

I've been interested in things such as yoga and meditation ever since I took a stress management class in college. (I tend to be wound rather tightly at times!) For years, I used writing as my primary practice when I was looking to do something meditative
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Necklace Making: Five Ideas for Designing Beaded Necklaces

Necklace making is something that has always come easy for me. Even now, I find that my sketchbooks are full of more necklace designs than anything else, and I'm always finding inspiration for new designs everywhere. My process for designing and making
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Project Accessory Bead Along, Week 2: Inspired by Swarovski

James, a professional shoe designer, offers assistance and advice to David. For just a few minutes while watching the second episode of Project Accessory the other night, I really, really wanted to be one of those contestants and get ten minutes at the
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What's In a Name? Maybe a Free Beading Kit!

The piece: a twisted herringbone rope accented with two lush tassels of fringe and a crystal flower centerpiece. Come up with the best name for this piece of beadwork, and you win the beading kit pictured below courtesy of Red Panda Beads! Sometimes I
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What Can You Learn From Beadwork Magazine's Designers of the Year?

Beadwork magazine chooses some pretty amazing beadweaving artists to feature as their Designers of the Year. These artists teach internationally and are known for both their gorgeous beaded jewelry designs and their innovative uses of traditional off
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Choosing the Perfect Name For Your Beadwork

Naming my beadwork is probably the hardest part of the whole process for me. A good name can mean so much when you are trying to convey an idea or a concept through a piece of beadwork or beaded jewelry. To me, choosing a good name for a piece of beadwork
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Beading For a Cure

My finished piece of bead embroidery for Beading For a Cure. A couple of years ago, I sat in my favorite coffee shop one morning looking for something to blog about. Betcey Ventrella of Beyond Beadery suggested that I check out the amazing projects that
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THOSE are Beading Supplies?

Yep, we beaders are definitely a creative and thrifty bunch. When it comes to our beading supplies, there are lots of items that we "borrow" from other crafts that work just as well when it comes to our beloved beads! Recently, I discovered
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The Secret for Perfect-Fit Peyote Stitch Bezels? Brick Stitch!

There are a few reasons why you might want to make an open-backed bezel with peyote stitch for a cabochon. An open-backed peyote stitch bezel is great for a transparent cabochon when you don't want to glue it to a backing. Or if you have a cabochon
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Get Caught Up in Beaded Netting

Beaded netting is such an easy beadweaving technique, and one that I think is very often overlooked or ignored by beadweavers in favor of beading stitches like peyote stitch or herringbone stitch. It's been a favorite of mine for creating supple but
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5 Tips for Learning a New Beading Stitch

Being a (mostly) self-taught beader, I discovered the advantages and drawbacks of learning my beading skills from books and videos. (That was back in the Stone Age when all we had was a VCR!) It was easy enough for me to follow the diagrams and directions
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Learn Herringbone Stitch with Melinda Barta

Learn expert tips for working flat herringbone stitch Find out how to work circular and other variations of this versatile beadweaving stitch Follow large, easy to see diagrams as Melinda takes you through basic herringbone stitch Maybe I'm giving
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Free Beading Project: Banded Flat Herringbone Bracelet

Welcome to Free Project Friday! This week's free beading project is an easy banded flat herringbone bracelet, made with seed beads and tiny cube beads. These new cube beads are popping up everywhere, and I couldn't resist adding a selection of
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Flat Herringbone Stitch with a Traditional Start

Pretty much every single flat herringbone stitch project that I've seen has a ladder stitch start to it, so I was eager to learn this method for starting flat herringbone stitch. Instead of beginning with a ladder, your herringbone stitch will begin
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Question of the Week: What's Your Favorite New Beading Product?

It seems like every time I turn around, there's a new bead, beading supply or beading tool available at shows and online. I thought I'd ask our panel of experts and artists what their favorite new beading product was. Carol Dean Sharpe: I am completely
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Free Project Friday: Jazzy Herringbone Bracelet

Welcome to Free Project Fridays! I'll be posting a new free beading project every Friday here on Beading Daily , so stay tuned for some great new beading projects! The Jazzy Herringbone Bracelet made by adding little groups of embellishments to a
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Making Waves with Herringbone Stitch, Part 2: Elegant Undulations

For me, herringbone stitch is one of those bead weaving stitches where I'm not afraid to experiment and discover all it has to offer. Maybe it's the history and culture behind herringbone stitch with its origins in South Africa that speaks to
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Making Waves With Herringbone Stitch, Part 1: Wavy Herringbone Stitch

Ode On a Grecian Urn Necklace It's no secret that I love herringbone stitch in all of its variations. After learning how to do tubular herringbone stitch, I decided to try some experiments with flat herringbone stitch. I decided to start playing with
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Five Fabulous New Seed Bead Projects in the Beading Daily Shop

Seed beads are beautiful. And not just because they're little and shiny - for me, the beauty of seed beads lies in the fact that you can do so much with them! Sure, you can string them all by themselves or stitch them together in a simple peyote stitch
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The Many Variations of Herringbone Stitch

Simple herringbone ropes can be braided together to make easy and striking jewelry Dramatic curves can be achieved in flat herringbone stitch by using different sizes of beads Beadweaving is like magic to me. You sit down with a pile of seed beads, some
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Because We Just Can't Get Enough Beaded Necklace Designs

I don't know what it is about necklaces, but I make more beaded necklaces than any other type of beaded jewelry. So that's why I'm excited to reintroduce this eBook: 7 Free Beaded Necklace Designs . There is a great variety of necklaces inside
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Use Peyote Stitch and Herringbone Stitch to Make a Triangle-Shaped Cabochon Bezel

Learning peyote stitch opened up a whole new dimension in beadwork for me. I felt like one of those cartoon characters who suddenly gets superhuman powers, then sits back and cackles and says, "Now I will RULE THE WORLD!" Maybe peyote stitch
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What's Your Favorite Bead-weaving Stitch?

Hello Beading Daily Community! Some of you might already know me —I'm Jennifer VanBenschoten, and I've been a contributor to Beadwork magazine for a few years now. I'm incredibly excited to introduce myself to you now as the new online
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Our Top 3 Beading Library Essentials

There is only one thing better than cracking open a new beading book, watching a brand-new beading DVD, or downloading a beading resource that you can't wait to use: sharing the experience with friends. Explore our top picks from the Interweave store
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Indulge Yourself with Favorite Bead Stitches

Many of you know that I'm a glutton when it comes to learning, especially anything that concerns beading. I love storing facts and figures about the history of beadwork, bead manufacturing, and the business of beading. But my very favorite way to
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Hip to Herringbone

Kristal Wick is the editor of Beading Daily This weave is often found in Ndebele beadwork. The herringbone stitches or pattern creates a tough fabric. It's a tricky stitch, but once you get the knack, it can produce wonderful geometric shapes.Use
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Kristal Wick's Picks - Top 5 Beadalicious Goodies

Kristal Wick is the editor of Beading Daily I have to admit, one of my favorite things about my job as Beading Daily editor is hearing your stories on Face Book and the Beading Daily Forums. I love reading how you started on this beady path. Your high
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6 Free Bead-weaving Patterns: Herringbone Stitch and Right-Angle Weave

Kristal Wick is the editor of Beading Daily If you love beads (and who doesn't?), then today is your lucky day! We're happy to present six beautiful bead-weaving projects for you FREE , my beady peeps! The three herringbone-stitch projects have
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4 Simple Steps to Getting Started with Herringbone Stitch

Kristal Wick is the editor of Beading Daily For all of you keeping up with my recent beading chapter I endearingly call "GBBAWTTLSB" (Great Big Bead Adventures with Those Tiny Little Seed Beads), you know I'm hopelessly in love with the
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Bead-Making Instructions for Beaded Beads: How to Make Beads from Beading Daily

Kristal Wick is the editor of Beading Daily . My recent o bsession with seed beads has completely changed how I view my DIY (Do It Yourself) world, as well as added hundreds of new projects to my "must do" jewelry-making list. I love sharing
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Plan Your Holiday Jewelry-Making: Earrings for Everyone!

Kristal Wick is the editor of Beading Daily . These last days of summer may be in the 90s and 100s, but it’s time to chill out and start your holiday jewelry making. I actually play a few of my fave holiday tunes, make an ice cold drink, and spend
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Find Your First Easy Steps to Seed Beading

One of my ongoing burning questions has NEVER been “to bead or not to bead” but rather “WHAT to bead or not to bead.” That is a serious question, is it not? A bead explosion in my closet Seed beading, wireworking, gemstone beading
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Lariats You Will Love and a Free Project

Simple and sensational lariats– What’s not to love about lariat designs? They can be tied or looped to suit whatever length you need. Many designs are fast and easy to make: Dangle a pair of big baubles at the ends of a cool chain. Tie clusters
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Easy Beading–Create Style and Sass in a Flash

Step by step and bead by bead– This may be the most challenging post I’ll ever write––to choose favorite projects from all my years as editor in chief of Step by Step Beads . After all, everything we (Managing Editor Jane Dickerson
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Top 5 Favorite Stitches

So many beads, so little time! Peyote. Right-angle weave. Netting. Herringbone. Square stitch. These five stitches rank highest in every survey, project commentary, and request we hear on Beading Daily and in our magazines. And these are just the basics—each
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Learn More About Design at Bead Fest

Are you ready for asymmetry? Is your life frenzied like mine? If so, are you making symmetrical jewelry? I do. It makes me feel balanced—or at least look balanced. But balance does not have to mean symmetry. Asymmetry is fun, even cathartic for
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Free Seed Bead Project–Plus Preview Beads, Baubles, and Jewels

The secret behind a successful show When it comes to getting all the cool Beads, Baubles, and Jewels stuff, you have it easy. Just watch and learn! But weeks of preparation happen before the show you see. For Marlene Blessing and myself, as the two editors
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How to Become a Stitch Pro

New for Beadwork in 2010 I get a kick out of seeing the reaction on some people’s faces when I tell them what I do for a living. “I design, teach, and write about beading.” Yep, it’s an unusual job, all right. It came about from
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Find the Seed-Bead Resource that Fits your Learning Style!

How Do You Learn? Like many of you, beadwork wasn't my "gateway craft." You know ... the craft you first really got hooked on. The one that turned the extra closet in the hallway from a nice place to store winter coats and hide holiday presents
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Handy Guide to Jewelry-Making Terms

What's in a name ? I live near this kid named Christian. Nice boy, a little shy, but very polite. "Hi, Christian!" I yell from the porch when he walks to the bus. "Hi, Mrs. Campbell." "Hey, Christian! How's your sister
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4 Tips for Crystal Jewelry Projects

Make your jewelry special with sparkle ‘Tis (almost) the season to be glam! Even I, ever the industrial chic, seed-beads-4-ever chick, totally love the look of crystal jewelry at this time of the year. There is a magnificent brilliance that only
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Discover your jewelry-making style with a Beads, Baubles & Jewels video!

My Style, Your Style! We beaders love a challenge! The challenge of learning new stitches and twists on a technique. The challenge of that “blank page” moment when you spread out your beads and wonder what you’ll make. But the challenge
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Create a Seed Bead Necklace with an Interchangeable Pendant

I may be the owner of the last reversible skirt in America. To be honest, I've only worn it with the pattened side showing, but I love the idea that I could wear the plain blue side showing if the mood ever struck. I especially enjoy packing that skirt for trips. It lets me pretend that I'm one
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Experiment with Caddis Weave: Free Bracelet Project

5 Unusual Stitches Every once in awhile, I come across a new beading stitch. Some of these are actually very old stitches (the "it's new to me" category), while others are variations of familiar stitches like herringbone or peyote. A few
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Which Stitch Are You?

Beading Daily is a social network, so, like many other online communities, I’ve determined we need to have a ridiculous quiz. Normally this might require all kinds of in-depth questions in order to come to its conclusion, but why not just jump ahead to the answers, so you can pick for yourself? Then
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Hurray for Herringbone: Free Project & Technique Tips

Almost all the instructions I'd seen for flat herringbone stitch projects started with a base row of another stitch, usually ladder stitch. So when I saw today's free project, I was momentarily flummoxed. Begin herringbone without ladder stich? I felt like the Peanuts character Linus must have
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Create with Patterns: Enter Beadwork's New Contest

Though it’s hard to imagine what life was like before I started editing Beadwork magazine and writing books about beading, I remember what drew me to pursue a career in art and design in the first place: pattern. Patterned wallpaper, patterned bedspreads, patterned Trapper Keepers (remember those?),
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Beading Techniques, Tools, and How-To Articles

Check these pages for instructions, illustrations, related articles/magazines/books, and occasional videos on how to create jewelry, whether you favor bead stitching, stringing, or wireworking. You'll also find links to selected articles on selling
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How to Bezel Cabochons and Answers to Other Reader Questions

Beading Daily readers are full of questions! I was reminded of this when editor Michelle Mach sent me dozens of your questions this month, ranging anywhere from “How do I hang an 18mm heart pendant? Jump rings don’t seem to work.” (use a pinch or prong bail instead) to “How do I remove a crimp cover
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Create an Easy Ladder Stitch Bracelet

Ladder stitch is one of those stitches that rarely gets any attention in its own right. Instead, it's used mainly as a foundation for other stitches. Many brick stitch patterns begin with a row of ladder stitch, as do some herringbone stitch patterns. In Mastering Beadwork author Carol Huber Cypher
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Learn African Helix Stitch in 4 Steps!

It’s a cliché and dorky tradition, but my husband and I light a candle and make resolutions on New Year’s Eve. We’re each allowed only one. And those amorphous “I’m going to eat healthier” or “I will strive to be a better person” type of resolutions won’t fly. What we come up with are more like personal
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4 Fringe Techniques Inspired by Zulu Beadwork

I was at Diane Fitzgerald’s studio recently. I’ve been there before—she’s a home girl (lives in Minneapolis, too), and we get together for lunch now and then. But this time my visit was a little different. This time I was bowled over by the sheer amount of Diane’s beadwork. I swear there was double the
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Jewelry Using Combined Techniques

Designs by Beading Daily readers that combine beadweaving techniques like square stitch or herringbone with simpler techniques like stringing or basic wirework.
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Teresa Sullivan's Freeform Peyote Figures

I met Teresa at Bead Expo Portland where she was teaching two classes, including one titled "Monster Mash" which promised to "unleash the secrets of sculptural peyote stitch" by creating fun faces with seed beads. At the show, Teresa was wearing one of her striking pieces and I was
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Bead Instructor Tips

I asked our Bead Fest instructors to share some of their top beading tips. From beadweaving to wirework to keeping track of your projects, you'll find all sorts of great ideas to make your beading better. Click on the links to learn more about the
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Choose Your Free Beading Project

Introducing Bead Romantique Last fall I saw a preview of the new spring beading books from Interweave. There are some terrific new books coming out, but the one that really captured my imagination was Bead Romantique by Lisa Kan. ( See a preview .) This
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4 Beaded Bead Projects

Making Ladder Stitch Beads Step by Step Beading Daily Reader Chris O. asked for illustrations for this week's featured project, the Lazy-B Ranch Bracelet . I took some quick step-by-step photos at my kitchen table. I used dark thread so that you could
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And the Easiest Stitch is . . .

The votes are in! More than 780 Beading Daily readers voted on the easiest off-loom beading stitch and the easiest stitch is . . . peyote! Here are the complete results: bead crochet - 1% brick stitch - 10% daisy chain - 6% herringbone - 7% ladder stitch
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What's the Easiest Stitch?

What's the easiest off-loom beading stitch? That seems like a straightforward question, doesn't it? In fact, as you're reading this, you've probably already filled in the answer with . . . . what? Tubular herringbone? This past week, I've
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Beads. . .It's What's for Dinner

From your wrist to the table: The Faerie Queen Cuff Beads for dinner? Not literally, of course. I may not wear a lot of glittery jewelry myself, but I love seeing my table dressed up! A much smaller version of the Faerie Queen Cuff makes a beautiful napkin
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Fluent in Beads: An Interview with Carol Huber Cypher

This is my first official post on the road. I'm at BeadFest Philadelphia this weekend, so if you're at the show, please stop by the Interweave booth and say hello! I first met Carol Huber Cypher at Bead Expo in April, when she stopped by the Beading
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