How to Make a Beaded Ring - Easy Peyote Stitch Ring

Cut 4 to 5 feet of Fireline and thread your needle. Pick up one bead in a contrast color as a stop bead. Slide it down, leaving a 4 inch tail, and pass the needle back through it once so it holds. Then pick up eight beads in your main color and slide them down to the stop bead. These eight beads make your first two rows.

Wrap the thread around your finger to hold tension. Pick up one new bead. Skip the last bead you strung and pass the needle through the next one, which is bead two counting up from the stop bead. Pull it snug. The new bead and the bead it sits beside line up and start to form a little triangle.

Keep going the same way. Pick up a bead, skip the next bead in the original row, and pass through the bead after it. Repeat until you reach the end. You will see a row of small stepped triangles. If a bead is not sitting where it should, wiggle it into place with your nail. That completes the first two rows.

Take off the stop bead. From now on every row is four beads. Turn and work back the other way. Pick up one bead and pass through the next bead that sticks up higher than the others, the up bead. Pick up a bead, go through the next up bead, and so on. Keep building until you have about 16 rows.

To start the chevron, use one colored bead as the first bead of a row. On the next row, when you reach that colored bead, add another one beside it. Keep stepping the color over by one bead each row. A second color follows one row behind. The colors build a small diagonal triangle across the band.

Continue the diagonal until the first color reaches the top edge of the band. She adds turquoise, coral and gold lines that follow each other, which makes a rainbow chevron. Follow where each bead naturally lands. Once the design is done, go back to your main color and keep weaving until the band almost wraps around your finger.

Wrap the band around your finger to check the length. The two ends must fit together like a zipper, with up beads on one end and down beads on the other. If it is too short, add two more rows so the teeth still mesh. She added two rows to hers. When the length is right, bring the ends together with the teeth interlocking.

With the ends meshed, pass the needle through the up bead on the opposite end. Then go through the up bead on the near end, and back across again, zigzagging until you reach the last bead. Give the thread a good tug. The join pulls together and almost disappears. Weave back through the seam once more to secure it.

Weave the working thread back into the band. Find two neighbouring beads and loop around them two or three times to anchor the thread, then weave a little further and anchor again. A ring gets a lot of wear, so do it twice. Clip the end close. Thread the starting tail and finish it the same way.