Sometimes instead of even more fancy details, shine, and bling a design needs the exact opposite: a pool of calmness, straight lines, and even some matte or opaque tones. The Paris motif that I used for this bracelet is as fancy as the city that it got its name from. A Preciosa sew-on rhinestone in the middle, fire-polished beads with AB and glittery effects, golden wavy lines on the edge, and full metal plated Preciosa bicone beads are beautiful together, but without a counterbalance they loose momentum – when everything in focus, nothing ends up being in focus. By adding ‘calm spots’ in between the busy squares the bracelet becomes more dynamic.
How to bead a square stitch bezel
It’s always possible to add a Peyote-bezeled chaton or rivoli in between motifs. However, I wanted to use and create something even calmer then the facets of the crystal glass cabochons and the zip-like structure of Peyote. I was longing for straight lines and smooth surface: and that’s what I could achieve by using the Preciosa Nacre cabochons and a simple and fast square stitch bezel!
NAC – 8 mm Preciosa Nacre cabochon
Check out our SPECIAL DEAL for these cabochons!
R15 – 15/0 Miyuki round seed beads
C11 – 11/0 Miyuki Delica beads
For a 8 mm cabochon or pearl, pick up (22) C11 beads.
Bead through all of them one more time, starting with the first, so the result is a circle.
Bead through the first bead for a third time, too.
Don’t tie a knot.
Would you like to get a bunch of free beading tutorials?
Pick up (1) R15.
Bead through the C11 that you were exiting before picking up the R15.
Bead through one more C11.
Continue adding R15 beads.
Complete the whole circle.
There should be the same number of R15 beads as there are C11 beads.
Bead through all the R15 beads to join them into a circle.
You can repeat this to create a smoother line of r15 beads.
NAC – 8 mm Preciosa Nacre cabochon
Check out our SPECIAL DEAL for these cabochons!
R15 – 15/0 Miyuki round seed beads
C11 – 11/0 Miyuki Delica beads
Bead back to the C11 beads.
Add a row of R15 beads on the back of the bezel, too.
Insert the NAC (domed side towards the R15 added in steps 2 and 3).
Join the R15 beads just like you did in step 4.
Continue working with square stitch.
Add R15 and C11 beads interchangeably, but adding a new bead on top of (2) R15 beads from the previous step instead of one.
As you need to add (11) new beads, the first and the last one will be an R15, too.
Join the R15 and C11 beads into a circle.
Your bezel is complete.
You can use it as a connector or decorate it further with more beads.
Show me your jewels with Nacre cabochons and with the square stitch bezel in a comment 🙂
I’ve wanted to learn beading around a cabachon, or “bezelling”. Also a printout, download or something like that.
Do you live in Slovakia? I’ve visited there.
Thanks. Paulette Kuzmanovich
So can this be done on a crystal rivoli or a flatter cabochon? Thanks
Yes, we successfully used 8mm chaton, 8mm rivoli needs to be tested in the Beadingschool creative team. Please ask in the Beadingschool Club if we have a member who tried the rivoli 🙂 Thank you!
Thank you very much for this tutorial on how to do a square stitch bezel of a nacre cabochon — it’s very beautiful and it’s always nice to have more than one possibility for a beaded a bezel around beads/cabochons. Very nice!!!
I’m very happy to know you found this helpful and enjoyed bezelling with square stitch! 🙂
I wish you would condense the instructions and have a place to print the instructions. It is hard to bead on my computer with it running and beading I don’t have the space. If you had a button to print the instructions it would be very helpful.
The downloadable file is coming this week! 🙂
Great!!! It’s true looks different.
Always it is good to have alternated options.
Thanks ! Have a nice day!!!!
Such a beautifully simple way to bezel the Nacre cabochons – an elegant addition to include in our beaded pieces. Thank you. 😊
I’m happy that you like it, Faye! It is indeed a good alternative to Peyote bezels, creates a different effect 🙂
I love this little pool of calmness 🙂
My mind is already on a journey finding ways to embelish it and create something less calm. 😅
It is a wonderful idea and definitely achieved what you wanted with it! Thank you so much for sharing!
Nitti I love the ‘little pool of calmness’ definition! Enjoy beading and may these bezels bring you calmness and creativity!