new hobby?

I've been interested in learning some kind of beading technique for a few years now. Never found anyone who knew one that could teach me. Then, one day, I came across a link to a video tutorial for peyote stitch beading. I decided I needed to give it a try. I already had a project in mind... a hat band.

I downloaded peyote beading graph paper, developed some designs, and got some beads. Unfortunately, I was so excited to start, I didn't take any picture of the early work. But here's the end...

Here's what my set up looked like. Red, turquoise, and black seed beads, nylon thread, needles, scissors, pattern, etc.


A little closer look. I needed a band about 24 inches long to go on the hat. I think at this point I have about 2-1 1/2 inches to go.

And closer still. I started on Monday or tuesday of last week, and finished last monday. So about a week. I didn't work on it every day, but when I did, it was usually for a few hours.

Here's the hat with the completed band. The hat was a cowboy hat that I took the shape out of. It's made of a stiff felt. I soaked it in warm water to push out the folds in the top and flatten out the brim. I went for a mountain man or medicine man type hat. I still need to get a feather to put on it.

By the way, the hat is not for me. It's to trade at the scout Mountain Man Rendezvous overnighter in the next couple weeks. I hope to have a couple other items by then as well.

Anyhow, I'm happy with it. Not bad for a first time. I used the cheapest beads I could find, so they weren't very uniform in shape, which made it a little uneven at some spots. It's not perfect, but it's still pretty good.

Like I said, this was made using the peyote stitch. I'd like to eventually try the "lazy" stitch and "loom" beading techniques as well eventually. Looking forward to it.