Freeform Peyote :: The Color Red Challenge

Karen from Baublicious is hosting one of her freeform peyote challenges. I would never have known about this form of bead weaving without Karen's blog, and I most certainly would not have tried it without the amazing encouragement she offers.

I have come to really enjoy freeform beading. In fact, getting comfortable with freeform has done two surprising (at least to me) things for my bead weaving. First it got me to relax and not be so afraid of making every stitch absolutely perfect. This fear can sometimes paralyze you to a point where you spend more time ripping things out, or simply giving up instead of pushing through and practicing the stitch. The second thing it has taught me is to think more creatively about designing a piece. I was constantly looking for a specific pattern, and trying to 'color within the lines.' But I find that the more comfortable I have become with freeform, the more comfortable I am with branching out to try new stitches and designs. So for this, I thank you Karen!

Now, on to the current challenge at hand, which is to use red in one of our pieces. Karen says that it can be anything from a wash of red to a single drop. And, of course, the piece needs to include freeform peyote, but we can also include a mix of bead stitches or techniques.

I really wanted to use a beaded bezel as the focal to a bracelet and then freeform the band. I had this large evil eye bead in my stash that a friend gifted me. It's one of several that she brought back from Turkey for me. I do really love the meaning of these. She will tell you that it is a way to ward off evil, and deflect it back at the person who might wish you harm. When you walk into her house you'll see them hanging from the door handles, in the window ... she even put a few into the mortar of the tiles in her kitchen. The most common place to put them in Turkey is right over the door so that it will deflect evil from entering the house. 

I used my red in the focal, and a few more smaller accent beads .... then the rest is black for a little drama in the bracelet. I used predominately freeform peyote, but you'll see a little stringing in there and even a little bit of ladder around the closure. Isn't that closure cool? I picked this one up from Melinda Orr (her shop is Orrtec on Etsy). It is a magnetic belt buckle! I had a lot of fun with this challenge, and can't wait to see what everyone else created: Baublicious, Beadsong Jewelry, Saturday Sequins, Antiquity Travelers (that's me), All in Beads, A little of this a little of that