Felting at a "Bead Show"

A contemporary glass bead maker I've known for many years has branched off into felting.  She had many lovely vessels at the Bead and Button Show in early June in Milwaukee.  

She has also put together kits to tempt the beaders in the crowd to move on over to the fiber side of the world.  

For many of us in the gallery, attending a conference is a way to learn new techniques in our chosen medium but also a way to open our minds to new and different techniques.

For the rest of this month, I'm going to include some more pictures of the fiber and fiber techniques I saw at the Bead and Button show.  This show (billed as the largest consumer bead show in the world) has changed dramatically over the seven years I have attended it.  And the plus side is that once a year I get to eat at Madors restaurant a quaint, old and delicious way to end a great week in Milwaukee.

More Peyote Stitched Jewelry

Peyote stitch is a very versatile beadwork stitch that can result in vastly different looking items of jewelry as handled by different fiber artists. Peyote stitch can be done flat, in a circle, in a tube, or in a variety of freeform manners.

Flat peyote stitch by Potomac Fiberarts Gallery member Mickey Kunkle is used to connect and/or surround resin elements to form a bracelet and a pair of necklaces.

Circular peyote stitch forms bezels for semiprecious gem elements in a necklace by Mickey Kunkle and a brooch by Gladys Seaward.

Joanne Bast uses tubular peyote stitching in a red necklace followed by tubular earrings by Joanne Bast and Emma Bednar.

A pair of earrings by Mickey Kunkle uses triangular peyote stitch.

My favorite of all is peyote stitch used in a freeform manner. No two examples turn out the same. Freeform bracelet, earrings and necklaces by Gladys Seaward:

Freeform Peyote stitch earrings and necklaces by Zoya Gutina evidence a very different style from Gladys.

Finally, some sculptural freeform peyote by Joanne Bast.

Peyote Necklaces by Zoya Gutina

Peyote stitched beadwork can be approached in many different ways. The basic stitch involves picking up a bead on a threaded needle and then passing the needle through a bead that has been previously attached. Variations can include but are not limited to using different sizes of beads, shaped beads, beads with asymmetrically drilled holes, increasing and.or decreasing the number of beads in a row, picking up more than one bead at a time, short rows, and fringes. Potomac Fiberarts Gallery member Zoya Gutina shapes small forms such as flower petals and leaves with peyote stitched beadwork and attaches them to a peyote stitched ground. Her richly embellished pectorals are unique adornments that will make their wearer stand out in any crowd.

The back of the above floral piece showing the peyote stitched ground upon which the individual flowers are attached producing a necklace garden.

Two more peyote stitched pieces by Zoya.


The variations of what can be created using freeform peyote stitched beadwork is limited only by the imagination of the beadwork artist and come in as many forms as their are artists doing the stitching. Joanne

Jewelry in peyote stitch beadwork

Peyote stitched beadwork may be used to produce elegant jewelry. Above is an example of very simple 2 bead wide peyote stitched strips suspending an artist made piece of fused dichroic glass. The beads complement the colors of the glass without overpowering it, allowing the pendant to be the focus of attention. (Necklace by Joanne Bast)

The second example, also by Joanne Bast, suspends an artist made pendant, here an enamel on silver piece with strips of peyote stitching. The difference is that in addition to plain seed beads, pressed glass beads with asymmetrically drilled holes are incorporated into the peyote stitching.

An additional use of peyote stitch is to create several strips of peyote and then braid them together.

Peyote stitch may also be done is a more freeform mode. In these first 3 bracelets by Potomac Fiberarts Gallery member Gladys Seaward, areas of peyote stitching are done with different sized beads, causing the finished construction to take on a more fluid and organic form. The sinuosity of the forms is enhanced by judicious increasing and decreasing. Gladys states, "Freeform beadwork is my favorite beadwork technique. It is the most creative outlet as it allows me to create my own original designs as I weave on and attach the beads."

I will finish today's blog with a few of my own bracelets where freeform peyote stitch is handled in a different manner. Instead of blocks of different sized beads, I have employed massive increasing, adding more beads to each row, and decreasing, to add shaping. This caused the peyote stitch framework to ruffle, producing 3-dimentional forms. I also often do my jewelry items in modules that are linked together with peyote stitched loops. This allows flexibility and gives the piece a place to twist and turn without wearing the constructing threads. Like Gladys, I now use almost entirely fireline, a thread intended as a fishing line.

I find freeform peyote work enticing as I never know what the end construction will turn out to be. The pieces evolve as they are created. Joanne

Peyote stitched Beadwork

Hello, I am Joanne Bast joining you as your blogger for the month of November. Among other forms of fiberart, I do beadwork and I thought that I would discuss some of the more popular forms of stitched beadwork that may be found in our gallery. The first technique that I would like to introduce is peyote stitch. Peyote stitch is an off loom form of beadweaving done with a threaded needle and involves picking up beads, one at a time, with the needle and stitching into a previously attached bead.

This produces a flat piece of beadwork with a staggered top and bottom row and flush sides. Patterns may be produced by varying colors to create vertical lines and diagonals but not horizontals.