Easy Beaded Beads

I need of a few beaded beads for my leather leaf bracelet to use as a closure bauble. I have seen beautiful
peyote stitched beaded beads on Etsy, but it's a technique that I'm having trouble mastering.
On a recent trip to the local craft store I saw some beaded beads and took a good look at their construction.
They were in fact not peyote stitched, or really stitched together in any complicated pattern, but they still
looked nice. So here is my attempt to improve upon their simple technique.
The base bead they used was made up of clear lucite oval beads about 20mm in size. Because I don't have
lucite beads on hand I chose to use round 20mm wooden beads.

1) I want black beaded beads and my wooden beads happen to be black. If I wanted another color I would
carefully paint my beads with a similar color of spray paint to match my seed beads; then let them dry for a
day before beading on them.

2) Lace one wooden bead upon a plastic coffee stir straw. You can reuse the stir straw for making more
beads if you are careful not to bend it as you work.
3) On 4 feet of 0.15 mm beading thread; form a ladder stitch base 6-7 beads long of size 11 seed beads with
a 2-3 inch tail of thread. Here are instructions from Bead and Button Magazine for a ladder base. The example
below actually uses larger beads, and a contrasting color thread. This makes it easier for you to see exactly
what to do.

4) Form the ladder stitch into a circle around the straw by joining the first and last beads in the ladder
stitch. Run your thread into the wooden bead between the straw and the inner bead wall; and out the other
side of the wooden bead.
The first image shows the circle formed without the straw, the second shows it around the straw using the
proper size beads (11), and matching color beading thread.
5) Push ladder stitch circle down against the wooden bead and pull the thread tight through the other end
of the wooden bead. Now form another ladder stitch base 6-7 beads long (use the same amount as in the first
ladder stitch circle) and form it into a circle around the straw. Form this new ladder stitch circle against the
base of the wooden bead.

6) Now join the base bead circles together by bridging the space over the wood bead with seed beads. Work
around the bead until you encircle the wooden bead with parallel bridges. Be sure each seed bead bridge lays
against the wooden bead so there are no bumps in the bridges arc. If the seed beads don't lay against the
wood bead remove one at a time from the bridge until they do. Remember how many beads you use in your
first bridge and repeat that count for every subsequent bridge.
7) Begin filling the space between the first set of bridges with new bridges. These new bridges will have less
beads in their count. Be sure they all lay against the wooden bead and again reduce the number of seed beads
in each bridge (if needed) so the bridges lay against the wooden bead. . Keep working around the wooden
bead add new bridges until you can no longer fit beads around the ladder circles. I removed the coffee stir
straw at this point but you can leave it in until your bead is complete.
8) Now skip down from a ladder circle 1-2 beads and begin creating shorter bridges to fill in the gaps
between the larger bridges. At the end of a new bridge weave into and up the next adjacent bridge 1-2 seed
beads. Repeat and continue filling in the gaps with shorter, new sets of bridges on each trip around the
wooden bead. As your gaps fill up your bridges will become increasingly shorter. Always be sure the bridges
are short enough to lay against the wooden bead, but long enough to fill in the gaps.
9) Once all the gaps are filled weave the needle thread back toward the tail thread and tie them into
a square knot. Clip the end tail to 2 inches long. Weave the tails into the bead work concealing them from
view.

Here are some comparison photos of the store bought beaded bead and the one I made. Because I used a
similar color base bead and matched beading thread to my base color the gaps in my bead are less evident.
Also the construction on my bead are tighter around the bead holes making the wooden base less visible at
the ends. From looking at the end view if the beads (last image) can also see how the bridge lengths shorten
and weave back into adjacent bridges,