Beadwrangler Special Feature
October 7, 2001

Question:   I’m new to beading and often am confused by beading terms and the names of the different stitches. Can you help me?

Answer:  Beading terms can often be confusing to a new beader and even to some of us who have beaded for a long time, since there is no real uniformity in beading terminology. For instance the Brick stitch technique is often referred to as Comanche stitch or apache stitch. The peyote technique is also called gourd stitch and netting can be called lace or lattice stitch. No wonder you are confused!

To help cut down the confusion, I’ve created this list of the most popular beading techniques. There are more, but I don’t have room for them here. Next month I’ll address beading terminology.  There are many names for the different stitches and if I have missed one of the alternate names please email me at Beadteach@aol.com and I’ll add them in a future Ask Barb Column.

PEYOTE STITCH:  An off-loom (does not need a loom)  bead weaving technique in which the beads lay vertically and interlock like teeth in a zipper. The rows are offset and the beads only go half way up the previous row. Imagine a brick wall and then turn the wall ninety degrees and see the bricks standing on end instead of laying flat. Now you have a visual of what peyote looks like.  Alternate names: Gourd stitch. Can be worked flat, tubular, flat-circular & dimensionally.

BRICK STITCH: An off-loom bead weaving technique in which the beads lay horizontally and stack on top of each other staggered like bricks in a wall. The rows are offset from each other.  Alternate names: Commanche, Apache or Cheyenne stitch. Can be worked flat, tubular and flat-circular & dimensionally.

NETTING: An off-loom bead weaving technique which looks like a net caused by using multiple beads in each stitch. The rows are offset from each other. There are at least two techniques, horizontal and vertical. The horizontal netting has soft, flat edges, where as the vertical netting has pointed edges at the end of each row.  Alternate names: Mexican Lace (horizontal netting), lattice and mesh stitch (usually vertical). Can be worked flat, tubular and flat-circular and dimensionally.

SQUARE STITCH: An off-loom bead weaving technique which looks like loomwork with the beads stacked evenly in rows and columns. Alternate names: Loom beading without a loom. Can be worked flat, tubular and flat-circular and dimensionally.

DIAGONAL WEAVE: An off-loom bead weaving technique with a diagonal appearance. Can be worked with a single needle or multiple needles.

RIGHT ANGLE WEAVE: An off-loom beading technique in which the beads are at right angles to each other. Can be worked with a single needle or with two needles. Can be worked flat, flat-circular, tubular and dimensionally.

LOOMWORK: A bead weaving technique which includes the use of a loom with warp threads on it. The ‘weft’ threads are loaded with beads and then the beads are positioned between the warp threads and attached by passing the needle and tread back through the weft threads again to secure them to the warp threads.

The beads lay in perfect rows and columns. Usually worked flat, can be worked tubular with a special loom.

APPLIQUÉ: An off-loom beading technique in which beads are sewn to a backing of cloth, leather or other material.  Appliqué is like painting a picture on cloth with beads which can be worked in any direction according to the pattern. Dimension can be added using various techniques.

LANE STITCH: An off-loom appliqué beading technique in which beads are sewn to a backing of cloth, leather or other material in ‘lanes’ or rows of a predetermined number of beads which causes a slightly raised row of beadwork.

TAMBOUR: A beading technique which uses a tambour ‘needle’ or a very small crochet hook to apply beads to cloth or netting by the use of a chain stitch. 

BEAD CROCHET:  A beading technique in which beads are added to the crochet thread and worked into a pattern or used as an overall beaded surface. Can be worked flat, tubular and flat-circular and dimensionally.

BEAD KNITTING:  A beading technique in which beads are added to the knitting thread and worked into a pattern or used as an overall beaded surface. Can be worked flat, tubular.

BEAD TATTING: A beading technique in which beads are added to the tatting thread and worked into motifs or used as an accent.

BEADED CROSS-STITCH: A beading technique in which beads are added to the cloth surface using cross-stitch.

HERRINGBONE STITCH: An off-loom technique in which the lay of the beads looks like herringbone knitting. ALTERNATE NAMES: Ndebele stitch. Can be worked flat, tubular and flat-circular and dimensionally.

COMMANCHE STITCH: See Brick Stitch.

APACHE STITCH: See Brick Stitch.

CHEYENNE STITCH: See Brick Stitch

LATTICE STITCH: See Netting Stitch.

MEXICAN LACE OR LACE STITCH: See Netting Stitch.

GOURD STITCH: See Peyote Stitch.

NDEBELE STITCH: See Herringbone Stitch.

MESH STITCH: See Netting.

Enjoy! Barb

Barbara Grainger is the author of:
Peyote At Last! A Peyote Beadwork Primer
Peyote Design Techniques
Dimensional Flowers, Leaves & Vines

Visit Barb's new Website - BarbsPage

I have a review of Barb's new book, Dimensional Flowers, Leaves & Vines in the Book Center.