Necklace – 100 Hours Of Prayer
This necklace is my first adventure in peyote stitch. I decided I wanted to learn peyote stitch, so I downloaded some directions from the web and taught myself circular peyote. I used green iris seed beads and golden teardrops from my local craft store along with my all-time-favorite Czech glass druks that are clear with a partial dark blue AB coating.I started out to make a necklace that was a single circular peyote tube with some dangles on it. Well, those beads had a mind of their own. The necklace just wouldn’t lie right and folded up in the middle. So I stabilized the middle of the necklace by stitching a second tubular layer of peyote stitch over the first, where I’d attached the dangles. I then had to add another row of teardrop fringe to balance the front.
Because one tubular strand of peyote looked skimpy with two layers of fringe, I doubled the length of the tubular peyote on each side. Late one night, I folded the tubes and attached each end back into the stabilized fringe area. The next morning, when I went to put it on, I discovered a problem. I had attached the ends so I had two long U -shaped loops rather than two circles to slip over my head.
How was I going to wear the necklace? I fashioned a button closure with three strands featuring my favorite druks and a glass foil bead I had in my stash. For the loop end, I worked circular peyote. TA DA!! All in all, I calculate that I spent about 100 hours of prayer on this necklace, considering that my top “beading speed” was 1½ inches of peyote in 15 minutes.
Of course, once the necklace was done, I had to have earrings and a bracelet to wear with it – you can’t just have one part of the set.
My hair is long, and I often hold it back with a headband (so people can see the earrings 🙂 ). When, I found four whole strands of my favorite druks, I wire-wrapped them onto a headband from the local dollar store.
About 6 weeks later, my 13-year-old son was at the dollar store and bought me some slip-on sandals that had cheap beadwork on a plastic grid.
You guessed it! I ripped off the old beads and am halfway finished redecorating my sandles.
Fantastic design and workmanship! You have clearly been blessed in oh so many ways! Thank you for sharing this with the rest of us