Beading Background

Hi, yes… it’s me. I’m the beginner. Of course, I’m not laying claim to being the very first beginner, or the last, but for the entirety of this year, I failed at this skill. 

How did I come upon beading, you ask? I’ve always admired it. I think the first time I paid attention to it was when my dad gifted me a beaded bracelet after his trip to South Africa. This was years ago, sometime while I was in college. Fast forward to now it becomes a valid question as to why my sudden interest has changed. 

Reels. Reels are the reason I got sucked back in. In fact, the first reel I saw was of peyote stitch. At the time I didn’t know this was a whole industry. I was hypnotized, however, and with no time to waste, was off to the races to research beading.

I had studied as many beading videos as I could. I made the rash decision to start immediately, buying whatever I could to make it work. After, I sat down to start and hit wall, after wall, after wall. As it turned out, just because I watched a ton of videos, I still could not do this.

Determined, I set off to find another alternative: loom beading. This also sucked me in only to toss me out. Again, I couldn’t figure out what I was missing…

That is, until my aha moment hit!

As it turns out, whether they’re reels, or shorts, or full-length videos, what I was finding were only parts… edited parts of a skill I had yet to learn. I get why creators do it, but it sucks. Plain and simple. But when so many people do it to rope viewers in, how am I supposed to find the skill I actually need?

Pictorial instruction had to be my solution! 

Pictures for the win! 

Pinterest helped with locating the stitches I was meaning to do, however I still had trouble. My second aha moment slipped by almost unannounced. It wasn’t just an operator error, it was also the ununiformed shapes of the seed beads that was causing a lot of my problems. 

Believe me when I tell you, I even did my research on the beads before purchasing them, only to have this also hold true. Just because your beads say their size (like 11/0) does not mean that the beads are a uniform shape. All it can assure you is the interior diameter of the bead is the same. That alone set this project on the shelf. 

It took until June of this year to want to try again. What brought me back to it again? Pixel art. 

This year in my new role as an art teacher (on my way to get my license, finally) I learned about art assignments that used tables in Google Documents. My mentor happened to be using it as a backup sub lesson for when she was out. Influenced by this and my rocky background with beading, I hit yet another aha moment, wanting digital to become physical. Thus, this project was born. 

Initially, I wanted students to use what they knew from the pixel art and apply that cell by cell information into a beaded design. This could require a slew of skill retention from beyond that year’s level, and add a stitch into the mix, giving students an artisan skill they could continue to work with if they chose to. And so, I had to make a design to show that this was doable. 

To coincide with the pixel art as it was, I decided to look up pixel art inspiration that went along with the 16×16 table that they were used to. Since I can’t just do something simple… I found cake.

This, however, is a 19×18 piece of pixel art, which defeated me originally. Setting my sights on this, however, I decided that I could alter it into the 16×16 table I needed and came up with this:

The 16×16 was just one row too short for this amazing cake, so the extra row was added despite the need for the piece to stay within the parameters. I figured I could adjust it where necessary and write out a lesson plan or plans to help this along. But what I really needed was to buckle up and teach a stitch that would keep it together. A stitch I didn’t really know yet. That stitch. 

Square stitch wound up being the obvious choice. In case it isn’t obvious, I need the beads to stay stacked, one on top of the other, to make the pixel art work in this medium (art vocab for materials). 

Wouldn’t you know, it worked! 

The yellow one was the first one I tried. Not long after, I realized my count was way off. In my defense, I was playing with creating the border with a diagonal stripe using all of the colors I had that initially screwed up the count. The yellow one is a whopping 13×24. Perfect. 

The blue cake was a twist on color study. Its direction reversal is not my nod at expertise; it’s just the back of the piece. This time, it was closer to the right number being 16×17 beads. 

Now, that I had physical examples of this lesson, I needed one more version. A video that I could visually show the skill and its challenges. Only, the beads I had a surplus were not colorful. I couldn’t exactly be sure that the time and effort creating another cake would pan out, so I decided on making a sign to go with them instead. 

Whether you’re unaware, or really new to recording and video editing, it is not as easy to do as pressing the record video button on your phone. In fact, you’ll need some things to give the first person view we’ve come accustomed to. Given my space and the fact that I was using my phone to record all of these step-by-step instructions, I could not access the pixel art I created for the sign and record at the same time. Therefore, I created a grid map of the sign on scrap paper and assessed changes based on that piece. Regardless, I was set and ready to record my journey.

My sign, PIECE OF CAKE, represents the concept that the square stitch is easy if you have the right materials. 

Ponytail beads are completely uniform. This fixes a lot of the operator errors based on creating the square stitches. Also, because of the wideness of the beads, I recommend using yarn to thread these. I used medium worsted weight (size 4) yarn. Reliable brands I’ve used in the past are Red Heart, Bernat, and Caron to name a few. A yarn needle, scissors, my square stitch video, patience and something to break hypnosis are all I suggest having otherwise.

Please note that I am not affiliated with any of the linked companies or goods. I am linking them as per my personal experiences with creating this project and the success that followed.

Material needed:

Access to Google Docs & Table Menu
307 Ponytail beads
Medium Worsted Weight (Size 4) Yarn
Yarn Needle
My Square Stitch Video
Patience
Something to break hypnosis (once you get going)

Is the video worth it?

Even if I didn’t create it and spend weeks editing it with royalty free music and reaction bubbles, I would still say yes. Reasons? Mostly because I have not found a single video that actually shows me what I need to do to handle mistakes made while creating the piece. Reels, shorts, videos? They’re all the same, showing the effortlessness the artist puts into their practiced craft. No shade, but for a beginner, it’s not realistic. By posting these videos, leaving them unedited experiences, without vocal complaints, pauses and otherwise, instead with emoji thoughts, I found this to be a little more my speed. 

Ultimately, troubleshooting and success are both within the video. Following it will produce the sign I’m creating, and help students learn the square stitch. 

Once you have an understanding of the square stitch, you’ll notice that there are two ways to do it, up the column, like I have in the video and stacked purposefully on top of each other throughout the row. I will make another video for that soon and post it here. Ultimately, I wanted to get this one up for now as the success of this is so impactful.

The pixel art bead lesson plan will also be in another post that will link to this one so as not to confuse those just looking for the square stitch skill. 

Learn, Practice, Improve

With the above sequence I learned the square stitch in one direction. During my practices, I decided I was ready to increase my growth by decreasing my size. Ultimately, I wanted to get back to seed bead size, but as a beginner, I had to still grow.

My next path took me into square stitch beading with Perler beads and embroidery floss. Same idea, just smaller.

First, I used Google Docs to map out my actual 16×16 square pattern as seen below.

After choosing six colors, three leaning to cool, while the other three remained neutral, I had my color pallet. Beading with square stitch became a breeze despite the size change. Once the sample was finished, I felt confident, completed. The comfort that overcoming an obstacle provides is wonderful. I truly hope you try this and keep with it.

Next, I have a video showing my journey with my warm color application.

Material needed:

Access to Google Docs & Table Menu
301 Perler Beads (50 per 6 colors to match the above pattern)
2 Embroidery Floss Wraps
Yarn Needle
Square Stitch – Beading with Perler Beads: Teaching/ Learning Video
Patience
Something to break hypnosis (once you get going)

Again, the videos are really the best place to get the real time ins and outs of this project. I troubleshoot issues with the beads as the floss thickens in the tubes and how to overcome many of the previous challenges in the first video on a smaller scale.

Seed Bead Nation

It’s crazy to think that by learning this stitch and being dedicated to the task over the last month that I can finally say that I’ve been successful. What I’ve mentioned above about the wildly inaccurate uniformity of seed beads as a whole is true, the use of this stitch can help anyone bead their projects into completion.

I don’t yet have a video of how I accomplished this, but I will soon! I can promise you that!

This is a 16×16 unit seed beaded project I started and finished yesterday. It’s not perfect. I can see where I made mistakes and that shows so much growth, I can’t help but cheer about it. Finally, I can see a cohesive pattern where there would have been a balled-up disaster months ago. Go me. Seriously.

Material needed:

Access to Google Docs & Table Menu
301 Seed Beads (I did not count this out yet to match the above pattern)
2 Embroidery Floss Wraps
Yarn Needle
Square Stitch – Beading with Perler Beads: Teaching/ Learning Video (I’m leaving this here until I have the seed bead version up. )
Patience
Something to break hypnosis (once you get going)

Beginner Recap

You will find success if you are willing to do the work for it. The above certainly showed me the same.

As always, I hope you find success in finishing.

Thank you for reading,

KA