Braided Peyote Bracelet

The recent August/September issue of Beadwork Magazine included another of my peyote beadweaving projects....called Braided Bands.

This design grew out of a curiosity question: what happens if I stitch narrow peyote strips and braid them? It didn't work -  the bands slipped around too much - so I added small tubes of Delicas to hold the "braids" together. The article is called "Braided Bands."

What is very cool is that a reader already has not only made my bracelet, but come up with her own variation. Vicki-Anne Carter from Australia sent me a photo of her creation (and gave me permission to post).

The pattern is simple, basic even count peyote stitching but the trick comes in keeping track of several narrow pieces. Vicki-anne added two more strips and created a very cool bracelet. By the way, Vicki-anne does a lot of beading. Check out her Fickr pics - do a member search for Vickiannec.

One of the things I like about this pattern is that if you use 3 bead colors, weaving in stripes, the two outside colors swap places from one end to the other.

Now I'm working on my sculptural peyote fishies, taking a short break from bracelets. The fish actually take more time and use a lot more beads than the bracelets.