Tutorial: Bead Looped Stacks

It’s bead overload month – and I hope to bring you several tutorials that will augment the techniques shown in my DVD Bead It Like You Mean It. Just for fun. And because I love YOU.

I love hand work. Not because I have endless amounts of patience and love peaceful hours of meditative stitchery. Sounds blissful but it’s no part of the reality of mothering five children.

I love to bead because it fits into the five minutes I’m sitting in the carpool line. A stitch stays put when you need to jump up and change a diaper. A tin of beads and a bit of cloth can travel with you during endless hours at music lessons and soccer practice.

Did you see those lovely little loopy yellow beads in the first picture? They are just toooo much fun to play with and I though I’d share how to create them with you.

I’ve started with a fun fabric flower, cut, fused, and stitched to a piece of craft-fuse.

I decided to outline the petals in a contrasting color of beads. Itty bitty size 15 rocailles in this case. I’m using a size 11 applique needle and nymo beading thread. I find that beading needles aren’t quite strong enough to sew through more than one layer of fabric without bending in half.

Knot your thread well and bring your needle up right where you want your loopy stack to sit. Give your thread a tug to make sure it’s not going to pop through the fabric.

Slide one bead down the thread. I’m using a green size 6 seed bead.

Load your needle with size 11 seeds, I’ve used ten of them. Take your needle back down through the hole of the base bead to the back of the fabric then pull it tight. Repeat the process to create as many looped stacks as you wish, knotting your thread tightly into the back every few stacks.

You can have lots of fun varying the length of the loops, the sizes of the beads, or even making each looped stack into a beaded fringe. (Tutorial here)