Choose a donut bead to build your palette around.

Then get creative with your accent beads: crystals, pressed glass, stones, pearls anything!

overflowing with embellishments

Use netting, with peyote, as a textural backdrop to showcase accent beads in lush fringe
designed by Colleen McGraw

netted donut pendant

Make a
Enrich a donut-shaped beaded bead with layers of adornment. Fringe and spiral ropes, dripping with accent beads, cascade from this netted donut for a pendant that has texture and movement.
e

stepbystep
Beaded donut [1] With a #10 needle, on
2 yd. (1.8m) of Power Pro, pick up three color A cylinder beads and a color B cylinder, leaving a 6-in. (15cm) tail. Repeat until you have 36 beads. Tie the ends into a square knot (Basics, p. 124) to form a ring approximately the same size of the hole in your donut bead. Adjust accordingly, and make sure that the number of beads is divisible by 4. [2] Sew through the ring until you are exiting a B. Pick up two As, a B, and two As, and sew through the next B in the

base ring (figure 1, ab). Continue one round like this, in flat circular netting, stepping up through the first two As and B that you added (bc). [3] Pick up three As, a B, and three As, and sew through the B of the next loop (cd). Continue one round like this, in flat circular netting, stepping up through the first three As and B that you added (de). [4] Continue for two more rounds, increasing one A on each side of the B each round, or until your netting is approximately the same diameter as your donuts edge. [5] Hold the donut on top of your netting as you work the decrease rounds. Pick up four

d b

c a

FIGURE 1

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MATERIALs
pendant 3124 in. (8.910cm) 3040mm donut bead 7 810mm accent beads for fringe 3 810mm accent beads for spiral ropes Japanese cylinder beads 15g color A 5g color B 5g color C size 150 seed beads 10g color D 2g color E 5g color F Power Pro Nymo D, conditioned with beeswax or Thread Heaven beading needles, #10 and #12

EDITORs NOTE:

Donut beads vary in width, thickness, and hole size. Customize the rounds in your netting to accommodate your donut. For example, I began with a ring of 28 beads instead of 36. Subsequently, I needed to add extra steps for the netting to fit around the wider edge of my donut. After rounds 15, I added two rounds of six As, a B, and six As before I began decreasing.

FIGURE 2

As, a B, and four As, (or one fewer A on each side of the Bc than in your last round) and work a round of netting, stepping up through the first b B that you added in the a round (photo a). Pick up three As, a B, and three As for the next round. Continue decreasing until youve completed the round and are exiting the B of a loop that has two As, a B, and two As. [6] Pick up a color D 150 seed bead, and work a round of peyote stitch (Basics) off of the last round of netting. Repeat two or three rounds until your inside diameter is approximately the same size
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as your donut (photo b). Secure the tails with halfc hitch knots between beads a (Basics), and trim.

Fringe [1] With a #12 needle, secure

2 yd. (1.8m) of Nymo in the beadwork, and exit a center cylinder at the bottom, on the outer rim of your netting. [2] Pick up 42 Ds, an accent bead, and a color E 150. Skipping the E, go back through the accent bead and two Ds (figure 2, ab and photo c), and pull tight. [3] Pick up six Ds and an E. Skip the E, and sew back through the six Ds and two

Ds in the stem (bc). Continue, gradually shortening the branches as you get closer to the donut. [4] Exit the end of the stem, and sew into your netting. Exit at two- to four-bead intervals to complete three fringes on each side of this piece. Repeat steps 13 for each fringe, but decrease the initial number of beads picked up so that the fringes are graduated in length (photo d). (My center fringe has 42 main Ds, the second has 36, the third has 32, and the fourth has 28.) [5] Secure the tails in the beadwork, and trim.

Spiral ropes [1] On 2 yd. (1.8m) of

Nymo, leaving an 8-in. (20cm) tail for attaching the rope later, pick up four color C cylinders and three color F 150s (figure 3, ab). Skip the three Fs and the first C, and sew through the last three Cs added (bc). [2] Push that loop over to the left. Pick up a C and three Fs (figure 4, ab). Sew through the last two Cs and the C just added (bc). Push the new loop to the left, on top of the previous loop. [3] Repeat step 2 until your rope is the desired length. [4] Pick up an accent bead

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c a

c a b

b a

b a
FIGURE 3

FIGURE 4

and an F. Skip the F, and sew through the accent bead and into the beadwork. Secure the working thread, and trim. [5] Repeat steps 14 to make two more ropes. [6] Thread a #12 needle on the tail of your longest rope, and secure it to a few cylinders in the back of the beaded netting at the center of the inner circle (photo e). [7] Repeat for the remaining ropes, attaching them one to three beads over, in the inner ring of netting, on either side of the central rope.

EDITORS NOTe: If your fringe accent beads

are top drilled, add one to four extra Ds on each side of the accent bead in step 2 of Fringe. Skip those Ds and the accent bead, and sew back through the two Ds of the stem. When tightened, this forms a loop so that they hang correctly.

Bail
Secure 2 yd. (1.8m) of Nymo in the netting, and exit a B at the top of your netting. Pick up 16 to 24 As, and sew through the base B to form a loop. Retrace the thread path a few times, and trim the tails.

Or, complete a spiral rope 112 in. (3.8cm) long and attach both ends to the back, top of your netting as shown in the pendant at right. Contact Colleen McGraw at cfmcgraw@cox.net.
Mix matte and metallic cylinder beads for netting with subtle sparks of color.

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