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Welcome to the beading techniques instruction pages! If you have any difficulty following these beading techniques, please post a comment at the bottom of the page on which you are stuck, and I'll do my best to help!
Step 1 : The most fundamental technique that is at the core of beading complex objects using right angle weave and beadweaving is the ability to cross the two ends of the same piece of fishing line through a bead, with each end approaching the bead from opposite directions (as shown in the picture). You will be doing this over and over and over in beadweaving all the beading patterns found on this site (basically at the end of every circle of beads that you add). The purpose is to lock the beads you add in position, as is demonstrated next. This site does not (at the moment) deal with other types of beadweaving such as peyote stitch, square stitch, brick stitch, ladder stitch, etc. We may one day add patterns that use those types of beadweaving, but of course it's better to excel in one type of beading than to be mediocre in many.
Step 2 : Here we have strung 5 beads in sequence onto a piece of fishing line, as you would in any simple strung bracelet containing beads. However, the next step (crossing a bead in the sequence) will completely transform the shape of the beaded sequence. Note that the orange bead that has been labelled with a red circle will be the crossed bead.
Step 3 : Voila! After crossing the two ends of the fishing line through the orange bead labelled with a red circle (in opposite directions), the line of strung beads transformed into a circle of five beads! Generally we always cross the last new bead that was added to a pattern, because any beads added onto the fishing line after the crossed bead will not be included in the circle that is made. After crossing the orange bead (with the red circle on it), simply resume adding new beads onto one or both ends of the fishing line, as shown in the diagram. Once you have added the desired number of beads that will make a circle of desired length (in our example, it was a 5-bead circle, but you could make 3-bead, 4-bead, 5-bead, etc., circles. There is no maximum bead limit, except that generally above 10 beads, the circle will lose rigidity and flop around).
Step 4 : Now we have crossed another bead! Can you guess which bead was crossed by the fishing line? (answer: the transparent bead). Following the pictures, you could have instead added the transparent bead on the same end of the fishing line as the orange bead, and would have ended up with the same result because both ends of the fishing line end up crossing through the bead that is crossed. Also, note that if you wanted to cross, say, the newly added orange bead, you could have done so instead, and the two ends of the fishing line would have been in a different location after crossing the orange bead. And if you wanted to cross the orange bead, it would have been easier to add all the new beads pnto the same end of the fishing line and crossing the orange bead (the last bead added to that same end of fishing line) with the free end of the fishing line. You could have crossed the blue beads as well by having added the transparent bead on the other end of the fishing line (beside the orange bead) and crossing the blue bead. In essence, the important thing is that you always cross a bead that is on the very end of one of the two ends of your fishing line. The only difference between which bead you decide to cross is the location of the two ends of the fishing line after crossing. That impacts where you can go from that point (ie. how to proceed with your pattern). Note from the picture that we have made another circle of five beads but have only added 4 new beads. This is because the orange bead labelled with a red circle is the common bead between the two circles of beads that we have made. Be careful when you have common beads (in this case one, but sometimes two, three or even four) not to add too many new beads to make a new circle because your circle may be too large (ie. contain more beads than desired). That being said, you can always very easily undo! So don't be afraid to make good use of trial and error with this type of beadweaving.
