WHOA - long peyote chains

Well, here's my first WHOA! post.  In other words: don't try this at home.

I read lots of magazines on beading. Lots. And on-line tutorials and books. I'm a researcher. I like to see how three or four different artists do something before I try it at home. This month I'm into peyote stitch. And it's pretty darn simple until you get into patterns (which I'm not). After making a couple dozen beaded beads, I decided to take up an author on her instruction to make a piece of flat peyote weaving as long as needed. I then intended to roll it into a bead long enough to reach 1/2 way around a bracelet.

BIG mistake. They say it can be done, but apparently not by me.

 

The beads in this picture represent about 2 hours of work. The tension is all wrong and the beads keep sliding around, even though I taped one end to my coffee table (great tip, BTW, just use a tape that is easy to remove later!). I kept going, though. Until I discovered I missed a stitch in the previous loooong row. And Since I'm a perfectionist AND I kept sticking my way-too-sharp-needle through the Nymo thread in the previous row, that was the end of that.

Next time, I'm using Fireline, a dull needle and fewer beads. No matter how much you research, there's no substitute for experience!