In this post, I am going to teach you how to bead Herringbone stitch, including flat, tubular and spiral Herringbone stitch.
This necklace turned out exactly as I imagined it, which almost never happens. It has Russian leaves on a spiral herringbone rope. It is time-consuming to make, but all the steps are really very easy. I am going to show you how to make it by first showing you how to make the rope part. Part 2 of this post will show you how to make the leaves and put it all together.
Leaves Necklace
Supplies
- Dyna-mites 11/0 Seed Beads - Silver Lined Translucent Rainbow Root Beer - approximately 20grams
- Dyna-mites 11/0 Seed Beads - Silver Lined Transparent Root Beer - approximately 20grams
- Dyna-mites 11/0 Seed Beads - Frosted Translucent Rainbow Root Beer - approximately 20grams
- Dyna-mites 11/0 Seed Beads - Opaque Rainbow Emerald Green - approximately 10grams
- Dyna-mites 11/0 Seed Beads - Opaque Rainbow Jade Green - approximately 10grams
- Dyna-mites 11/0 Seed Beads - Silver Lined Rainbow Dark Green - approximately 10grams
- Dyna-mites 8/0 Seed Beads - Transparent Rainbow Emerald Green - approximately 10grams - 48 beads for rope embellishment; 10 beads for bar clasp
- Dyna-mites 6/0 Seed Beads - Silver Lined Rainbow Dark Green - approximately 10grams - 48 beads for rope embellishment; 49 for clasp
- 12 - 6mm bicones for rope embellishment
- Various beads in different sizes and colors for rope embellishment - approximately 60
- Delica 11/0 DB1832 Galvanized Gold - approximately 3 grams
- 14 - 3mm rondelles for clasp
- 7 - 6mm rondelles for clasp
- 21 - 4mm pearls or crystals for clasp
- Thread of your choice, I used Smoke Fireline
- Size 10 beading needle
Step 1 - Spiral Herringbone Rope
The video below shows you how to bead a spiral herringbone rope, but I know some of you don't like videos so here's a rough outline.
To get the rope started, begin with ladder stitch. The rope is 6 columns, 2 columns per color. I like to start with 2 beads in each column so that I have something to hold onto. Fold the ends together and join so that you have a tube.
The rope is the 3 size 11/0 Dyna-Mites brown colors. The pictures below are using bigger beads so that you can see it better.
Start with 1 row of straight Herringbone so that you have something to hold onto before the spiral. I think it also looks neater going into the clasp. Pick up 2 beads of the same color and go down one bead of the next column. Move over 1 column and come up through the top bead.
Down 1, up 1, add 2 beads, all the way around. When you've done this 3 times you should be back at the beginning. It is important to remember to "step up" at the end of the round. If you forget it, you will have a spiral, but not the spiral we want.
To begin the Herringbone spiral, add 2 beads, but instead of going down 1 bead, we are going down 2 beads and then back up through 1 bead. You are going to continue like this until you have reached the desired length. There is no "step-up".
Spiral Herringbone is down 2 beads, up 1 bead.
Or you can reverse it and go down 1 bead and up 2 beads.
The total length of my rope before the clasp is 20 inches. It's 5.5 inches from the clasp to the embellishment. The embellishments are 1.5 inches and the middle section is 6 inches.
Step 2 - Embellishments
Embellishments can be added anywhere in your herringbone rope by adding different bead sizes, shapes and colors.
For my beaded herringbone rope, I did the following rounds for the green side embellishments:
- 1 round 11/0 Dyna-Mites Silver Lined Rainbow Dark Green
- 2 rounds Dyna-mites 8/0 Seed Beads - Transparent Rainbow Emerald Green
- 2 rounds 6/0 Seed Beads - Silver Lined Rainbow Dark Green
- 1 round of 6mm bicones
- 2 rounds 6/0 Seed Beads - Silver Lined Rainbow Dark Green
- 2 rounds Dyna-mites 8/0 Seed Beads - Transparent Rainbow Emerald Green
- 1 round 11/0 Dyna-Mites Silver Lined Rainbow Dark Green
Step 3 - The Clasp
The bar of the clasp was done with 16 columns of Dyna-mites 11/0 Seed Beads - Silver Lined Translucent Rainbow Root Beer and a column of Dyna-mites 8/0 Seed Beads - Transparent Rainbow Emerald Green on each end for a total of 18 columns. I peyoted 10 rows and joined together in a tube. Further instructions on making a clasp can be found here.
For the round part, I made the slider from Jill Wiseman's Satellite Bracelet she made for Jewel School. I made it a little bigger by adding another round of pearls.
You can find her video instructions here on youtube.
To attach the clasp, I came out a seed bead at the end of the rope, picked up 3 seed beads and then went through the middle of the bar where I wanted to attach it. Pass through a couple of beads in the bar, add a seed bead and pass through the middle seed bead of the 3 I just added. Pick up another seed bead and pass through a seed bead in the rope 2 over from the one you came out of. You should have formed an "X" between the end of the rope and the bar. Come up through the next bead and repeat the process, forming 2 "X"'s at the end of your rope to attach the clasp. Repeat this process to attach the "circle" to the other end of the rope.
This week I showed you how to bead Herringbone Stitch, next week I will show you how to make the leaves and put it all together!
