Guest Author - Debbie Witenski

Bead weaving is an extremely rewarding beading technique. The intriguing art of bead weaving involves using a fine beading needle and special kinds of thread to stitch together tiny seed beads to form various kinds of stitches.


In bead weaving you will pass through the hole of each bead more than once. Make sure you are working with a thin enough needle to pass through your beads multiple times. It is also good to have a beading mat or a felt or fleece mat, to keep beads from rolling away.

Some of the stitches I use are the Right angle weave (RAW), which is an off-loom bead weaving technique in which the beads are at right angles to one another. It can be worked with a single needle or with two needles. I prefer the two needle way. It can be worked flat, flat circular, tubular and dimensional.

Tubular stitch makes up some very nice tubular ropes which can make some beautiful necklaces and bracelets. By varying bead color and size, the possibilities are endless, for this stitch.

The Spiral stitch forms a nice spiraling rope. It is very easy to learn and the results of this stitch are stunning. Once you have learned this stitch, you can experiment with the endless ways you can create bracelets, necklaces and earrings, by changing the color and size of bead. This may become your signature stitch.

Another popular stitch is the Netting stitch. This is an off-loom stitch that looks like a net, by using multiple beads in each stitch. There are at least two techniques in netting, horizontal and vertical. The horizontal netting had flat edges, where as the vertical netting has pointed edges at the end of each row. This stitch can also be worked flat, tubular, flat-circular and dimensional.

Peyote stitch also known as gourd stitch is a bead weaving technique where the beads lay horizontally and stack on top of each other staggered like a brick wall.

One stitch that looks like loom work, with beads stacked in rows and columns, is the Square stitch. This can be worked flat, tubular, and flat circular.

Some other ways of bead weaving are: Bead crochet, bead knitting, bead tatting, beaded cross-stitching and herringbone stitch.