Whether it's Spring, or you just wish it was, this cheery butterfly pattern is a quick beading square stitch project, especially for beginners. If you're more comfortable using a beading loom, the design will work for that too, but you will be tying in a lot more threads.
Have you tried square stitch beading before? If not, you may want to check out my square stitch tutorial before moving on to this project. This project assumes you know square stitch and focuses more on following a beadwork pattern and other techniques to create the finished pendant and necklace.
Materials: (Note color names listed below are the best equivalents I could find to my old bead stock)
- Size 11 Miyuki Rocaille opaque luster canary
- Size 11 Miyuki Rocaille opaque butter cream luster alabaster
- Size 11 Toho Round opaque antique bronze
- size 11 Toho Round semi-glazed rainbow turquoise
- 6 mm round Druk in teal
- KO beading thread beige
- Bead tip antique gold-plated brass, 8x5mm triangle
- John James Beading needle
Make the pendant first, and then as a separate step, you can add the beaded necklace chain. Of course, you can also use the butterfly design for earrings or other jewelry.
Square stitch uses more thread than other stitches like peyote or brick stitch. You will need a full wingspan arm's length of thread for this project (hold the thread in your left hand, pull thread to the furthest point of your outstretched right arm). Pre-stretch nylon thread. I use a single strand of thread.
Start by stringing a stop bead.
Pick up the beads for the first row, plus the first bead of the second row. Stitch through the last bead of the prior row.
Finish the square stitch by stitching back through the bead you added. Continue adding beads in square stitch following the pattern below. You will find the full free bead pattern (for personal use only) and diagram at the end of this page.
After completing every two rows, I reinforce the row by stitching back down and up the beads. This helps the bead line up and gives the beadwork a little more body - especially when using a soft nylon beading thread like KO. It's an optional step though, so do what works best for you.
Continue adding beads in square stitch following the pattern and word chart.
When you are done with the pattern, secure the threads using half hitch knots hidden in the body of the beadwork. After each knot, weave the thread through several beads to hide and secure the thread end before cutting it.
The necklace chain is strung on a full arm's span of doubled KO nylon thread. I initially tried to use FireLine, but I realized it wasn't going to drape well, so I opted for doubled thread. It worked well, strong enough but also supple.
The clasp is attached using bead tips. I have a video for how to use clam shell beading tips. The short version is that I use a more secure stop bead inside the bead tip to maintain tension and then a drop of glue to secure the ends in the clam shell tip. You can also use a seed bead loop to add the clasp on the ends (link to another quick video for that technique)
The bead stringing pattern for necklace chain is: stop bead, bead tip, bronze bead, 5 lt. yellow, 3 dark yellow, bronze, 3 dark yellow, 5 lt. yellow, bronze, teal druk. Repeat 7 times, then repeat the seed bead pattern without the druk, stitch through top row of square stitch pendant and repeat above in reverse.
The last step is adding the clamshell bead tip then secure with stop bead and drop of glue. Add clasp to the bead tip and close the loops.
For a different look, try using size 11 delica beads which will result in a more refined, less organic result. Or add fringe!
Other articles or videos for you:
- Twisted Bead Fringe Tutorial
- KO Beading Thread Review
- Square Stitch Beading Tutorial
- Beadographer Beading Software Review
Here is the complete bead pattern made with BeadTool4. Click on pictures for larger view.
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