Peyote Fan Earrings Tip

I mentioned in the tutorial that it may be necessary to take some shortcuts when you reach the point where it's too hard to get your needle through the beads at the top of the earring again. However, I don't tell you exactly where to take the shortcuts because there is no right or wrong way to do it. I just try to find a spot that will allow me to loop back around through the seed beads so that the thread doesn't show. Below is an example showing how I would take a shortcut to weave around and reverse direction to start adding the next row of beads.

At the stage that you see in the photo, I had just added the second row of pink 8/0 seed beads along the edge and then I had gone up and around through the 8/0 bead, the metal bicone and the other 8/0 bead at the top. Pretend that my thread is coming out of the 8/0 seed bead just after the bicone and I have already gone down through all of those bronze beads on the outer edge just before the pink beads. I had added the second row of pink beads and was just coming up through the two 8/0 bronze beads on the right hand side. Instead of continuing up through the rest of the outer beads and going up around through the top of the earring again, I would come out of the 11/0 bead just above the second 8/0 bronze bead on the outside edge. Then, I would go to the left of that 11/0 bead and down through the 15/0 bead next to it. I then would double back over to the outer row and down through the 8/0 bead just below the 11/0 where I originally came out. From there I can continue on through the second 8/0 bronze bead and then start adding the beads that will make the next row.

I find that if I do this carefully enough, it doesn't matter which side of the earring I take the shortcut from because the thread is well hidden between the beads. Because the beads are stacked like bricks with peyote stitch, it's quite easy to hide the thread in this manner.

So, don't struggle to get your needle through those tight spots at the top because it's not necessary once you've got enough of a foundation of beads to weave around through. I generally don't start taking shortcuts until I've reached about this point in the tutorial. I've never had trouble getting through the top beads every time until I've added at least one row of 8/0 beads when I use 6 pound FireLine. If you've got 4 pound FireLine, you might even be able to go around the top beads a few more times but there's no sense in doing that when taking a shortcut is easier and saves thread too.
 
Click HERE to get the free Peyote Fan Earrings pattern. I will also add this tip to that page so you can easily find it again later. You can just click the link to the pattern from the side menu of my blog under Free Beading Patterns.