Jan 02 2009
Beaded Brick Stitch
Well, the soap is out of the mold and on the curing rack, and one of those beading patterns that I was going to finished actually made the grade. The other one still needs a little tweaking.
Now it’s back to exploring various bead stitches.
The beaded brick stitch is sometimes called Comanche stitch. It looks like peyote, and can be worked from a peyote graph if you turn the graph on its side. It’s much easier to make variable shapes like this Paisley Rose by Marie Star or this Art Deco Fish Bracelet by Jaycee Patterns when you work them in brick stitch.
I was a little put off by brick when I first started beading, thinking it wasn’t a very stable stitch because of the way the beads were connected, but as I began to work with it I found it quite stable, and much easier to increase and decrease if you want to make a shaped outline for your project.
This little elf is my first pattern made to be worked in brick and as you can see, I still have quite a ways to go to reach the beauty and complexity generated by Marie and Jaycee.
I expecially like the brick stitch for making earrings, as I like to have “dangles” and making a brick triangle base offers a number of design variations, and a nice wide base to attach lots of luxurious, supple fringe!
