Branch Fringe and Coraling Tutorial

Like peyote stitch bezels, fringes and embellishments are one of the fantastic ways that seed beads can cross over into other types of jewelry design. Even if you’re not a die hard bead weaver, these techniques can add something extra to your designs.

Branch and coral fringe are two versions of the same technique, and one of my personal favorites for creating unique pieces with lots of personality. By changing the colors, lengths, and patterns of your fringe, you can recreate the look of all manner of natural shapes - like feathers, pine boughs, and sea life.

We’re going to take a look at the very basics of branch fringe and coraling, worked in threes. You can always adapt these fringes for longer lengths at each step, but threes create lush, uniform embellishment with no guesswork. For clarity, each component of the fringe is also grouped into threes - the base beadwork or trunk, the basic fringe or limbs, and extra fringes that we’ll call branches.

How to Weave Basic Branch Fringe

Starting from an existing piece of beadwork, pick up any length of seed beads in multiples of three. This will make up the trunk portion of your fringe. Next, pick up seed beads in multiples of three, to make the first limb. Add one more bead at the end. This will be the tip of the fringe. If you’re working with a specific pattern or color palette, remember that this second bead addition will appear separate from the trunk section.

Skipping the last bead added, pass through all of the beads just picked up, plus the following three beads in the trunk. Pull your thread snug, and you’ve got the first limb of your fringe.

Pick up another group of three or more seed beads +1 and slide them down to the beadwork. Skip the last bead added, and pass back through all of the beads in the new branch, plus the next three beads in the trunk.

The limbs and branches will rest every which way as you stitch. When a full fringe is complete, you can gently nudge them into the positions that you like - alternating from one side to the other, for example.

For variation, you can increase or decrease the number of beads in each limb, add accent beads, or include daisy chain stitches or leaf fringes to all or some of the limbs.

How to Weave Basic Coral Fringe

Coral fringe is worked in the same way as branch fringe, but with extra additions of beads. Start by picking up seed beads in multiples of three to reach the desired fringe length. The finished strand will be a few millimeters shorter, especially if you are using a stiff thread like Fireline.

Pick up four more seed beads. Skip the last bead added , and pass through the other beads just added, and the next three beads in the trunk. Pull snug.

With coraling, you can make limbs of varying lengths, with a different number of branches on each. To start, pick up seven seed beads for the limb, and four seed beads for the first branch. Skip the last bead added, and pass back through the remaining branch beads, and the next three beads in the limb.

To finish this section, pick up four branch beads, skip the last bead added, and pass back through the next six beads, and the following three beads in the trunk.

Notice how the original branch added at the end of the fringe is now higher than the new fringe, because the new limb is longer. You can work this into your pattern, or make the first few stitches short. Whenever longer limbs are added, they will hang past the previous ones, which can make for some wonderful organic looks.

When you’ve added new limbs and branches along the trunk, you’ll have a lovely strand of fringe. To make it even more lush, increase the number of beads in the limbs - in a pattern or at random. You can also work in extra limbs. Instead of picking four branch beads, pick up seven or more beads for a new limb, and add branches as usual.

Copyright 2013 Inspirational Beading
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Chimera Necklace

When Zeus banished the Titans to Tartarus in the Greek myth, the giants took their revenge by sending forth their monstrous children to terrorize the realm of the new gods. Gaia gave birth to the serpent Typhon, and though he would also be defeated by Zeus, he was able to wreak much havoc on the world, and sired three more terrible creatues: Cerberus, Hydra and Chimera.

These three-headed beasts are well known in Greek legends, and are still favorite monsters in many fantasy stories. The least well known is the Chimera, though it is arguably the most interesting of Typhon‘s children. With the heads of a dragon, a lion, and a goat, this monster is often depicted as female. In some versions of the legend, the Chimera was the mother of the Sphinx.

In modern art and stories, the anatomy of the Chimera has taken on many different forms. A Chimeric Creature is a blending of three monsters and animals, sometimes with multiple heads, and often bearing the wings and tail of a dragon.

The Inspiration:

Before I took up bead weaving, I collected vintage acrylic and lucite beads, and used them to create tapestries of bead strands to decorate my home. After many moves and encounters with kids, some of them are a bit disheveled. One that has survived completely intact is made entirely with red and black beads. It’s one of my favorites.

Like any decoration that hangs around for a long time, I had started to take my bead tapestries for granted. The red and black strands caught my attention one day, and I wanted to refresh my interest by making a piece of jewelry with the same elements. When I thought of the red and black together, I thought it would be fun to create a tribute to the mythical Chimera, using the traditional three headed version as inspiration.

The Beads:

I started with three shades of 11/0 seed beads - light amber for the lion, Siam ruby for the dragon, and opaque black for the goat. For accents, I combined two mixtures of Fire Designs Furnace Glass beads - Queen of Hearts and Strawberry Shortcake. I selected my favorites in red, black and brown from this new mixture. I had a hard time choosing, and took a long while to create a balance between the single colored beads, and those with striped accents. I also added mixed strands of Czech fire polish beads in amber, jet and garnet, and a homemade mixture of hex cuts and Toho™ triangles in my Chimeric color palette.

The Beadwork:

I have always been a huge admirer of Margie Deeb’s Rainforest Cascade necklace, with it’s luscious strands of beads. I think most bead lovers can relate to the intense craving that thick strands of beads can induce. Although I love to look at them, I’m usually reluctant to use bare seed bead strands in my designs. My seed beads call out to be woven! So I sketched out a design that would have the same cascading feel that I liked, but used the tiny beads in a more structured way.

To create a pendant, I used black hex cuts to make a tapered base, then added 17 strands of wide fringe. Each of the 17 strands ends with a cane glass bead, and has long fronds of seed beads ending with hex cuts or fire polish beads. To add some depth to the fringe, I mixed my original three seed bead colors with color-lined seed beads in dark amber brown, mauve and jet black. The lion colored fringe is at the center, so that the outer colors match up with the tubular peyote rope. I love the way the wide fringe has elements of both beadweaving and multi-strand, and the furnace glass adds just the right amount of texture. I almost don’t want to let this piece go!

I would like to thank Artbeads.com for providing the Fire Designs beads used in this piece. Inspirational Beading has not received paid compensation for including Artbeads.com products or reviews in this blog post. I have shared my honest opinions about the products used in this design.

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading

Helen of Troy Necklace

Like most ancient tales, the story of Helen is never told the same way twice. The most common threads in the myth are that Helen was a daughter of Zeus, married to Menelaus, and the reason for the Trojan War. Some versions of the story are romantic; seduced by Paris, she flees with him to Troy to start a new and happy life. In other, darker stories, she follows Paris to Troy under the influence of the goddess Aphrodite, and eventually returns to Sparta with Menelaus after murdering her second Trojan husband, Deiphobus.

Whether she was a villain or a heroine, Helen of Troy is still known as a great beauty - the face that launched a thousand ships. As a queen of many countries, she would likely have owned some of the most wonderful treasures to compliment her legendary good looks.

The Inspiration:

When I learned that the theme for the January Etsy BeadWeavers challenge was the ocean, the first thing that came to mind was red coral. The material has been stirring up more controversy than usual of late. CITES - the organization responsible for the care and catalogue of endangered species - is considering adding red coral to the list of taboo creatures. This would essentially put an end to the use of red coral in art and jewelry.

For my challenge entry, I wanted to create a piece in tribute to the fight to save this amazing species. Coral of all kinds are so important to ocean habitat, and protecting them is a worthy cause. As I considered how to incorporate seed bead ‘coral’ into a piece of jewelry, I had thoughts of exotic, Mediterranean necklaces. I decided that I would create something worthy of a Greek queen.

The Beads:

To represent red coral, I chose some ordinary opaque red 11/0 seed beads. To make the palette regal and luxurious, I added 8/0 seed beads and hex cuts in various jewel tones like sapphire and emerald. To add a touch of gold, I grabbed some sandy colored light amber seed beads. Although I was making a necklace for Helen of Troy, I also wanted it to look somewhat primitive - something you could find in a seaside stall in Ancient Greece. I hoped that this mixture would help create the rich elements of royal jewels, and the rustic look of archaic craftsmanship.

The Beadwork:

I sketched out an arrowhead shaped pattern for a bib necklace, to which I would add fringes of red coral branches. After creating the sketch, I decided to add a freeform pattern within it - a line of loops and whorls for the jewel toned beads to follow. As I stitched the necklace, the changes in bead sizes caused the beadwork to take on a new shape which had the rustic look that I had hoped for.

Once the base of the necklace was complete, I added the coral branches. Although this had been my main focus, when I stepped back to look at the finished piece, I realized that it had been better without the fringe. I don’t think that the shapes or the colors compliment each other. If I were to do it over again, I would replace the amber beads with blue, and stitch a structured base to allow the fringe to play on it’s own.

In the end, I decided not to include “Helen’s Treasure” in the EBW Challenge. And, since I’ve been wanting a bib necklace for myself, I put it straight into my jewelry box!

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading

Pine Cone Necklace

There’s something wonderful and magical about a pine tree in winter. The pretty green boughs seem to carry us through cold and gray winters, keeping our spirits up just enough until the weather warms up again. Because there are so few lively plants around the holidays, evergreens are an obvious choice for decorating. No matter how they are used, pine cones and needles tend to look festive and cheerful.

The Inspiration:

During the summer months, my neighborhood grocery store had a large display of wooden patio accessories. Every time I passed by while shopping, I had to stop and look at the interesting selection of large wooden napkin rings. Something about them made me think of jewelry whenever I saw them, and I eventually got up the nerve to buy a few and see what could be done with them.

As soon as I had the napkins in my beading stash, I got out a scrap of paper to begin sketching some ideas. I wanted to cover at least one of the rings with beadwork and use it as a focal piece, so I started there.
The very first necklace design I drew looked more like a Christmas wreath, so I decided to transform a wooden napkin ring into a pine cone.

The Beads:

I started with some gold lustered rusty orange 11/0 Tohos, which have a nice rich brown color, with a hint of gold and red. I also grabbed some jade green and transparent brown root beer seed beads, as well as some emerald green Toho triangles. These four colors together really capture the beauty of an evergreen tree in winter.

The Beadwork:

To make the napkin ring look like a pine cone, I made two strips of right angle weave circles - one for the outside and one for the inside - then attached them with a few loops spaced as evenly as possible around the edges of the ring. I had originally thought of using tubular netting, but I wanted something rounder, to mimic the little petals on a large pine cone.

I attached the pine cone to two lengths of branched fringe in brown and green. The sprigs of jade and emerald seed beads look so much like the real thing, that I could almost smell a Christmas tree as I stitched. With all of the components together, the napkin ring underneath is almost invisible - it wouldn’t look nearly as much like a pine cone without the green fringe. The straps of the necklace really trick the eye into seeing the whole piece as it’s meant to be.

Copyright 2009 Inspirational Beading