Yesterday's feature designer, Jean Hutter of Totally Twisted Beaded Jewelry was a big hit judging by the comments! No wonder. Bead work can add a beautiful dimension to jewelry making. Even if you are not up to artistic beaded pendants, making a spiral bead rope to go with a bought focal pendant is a design possibility. You can also crochet a spiral rope using prestrung beads but believe me, the spiral stitch using needle and thread is much easier if you've never done a rope before.



There are many types of spiral bead stitches and here are some of them. The basic spiral rope tutorial by Teresa Isanhart of TCBeads which I recommend for beginners.




My favorite though is the flat spiral stitch.  Very pretty.  Flat Spiral Part 1 tutorial is demonstrated by Karla Shaffer of Auntie's Beads.

 

 Flat Spiral Part 2 

A double row flat spiral tutorial anyone? MyAmari has this lovely variation. See her elegant bracelet tutorial.



The Russian Spiral Stitch looks just like the DNA double helix when done with bugle beads.  You can see an example in this Flickr photo by hands2heal. Check out the basic Russian Spiral tutorial from Potomac Beads :

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
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