Peyote Stitch Bead Weaving

For the May meeting of North Country Spinners guild member Jeanine shared her expertise in Peyote bead weaving. Unfortunately my eyes couldn't handle the tiny, albeit lovely beads in the kits provided -- after an hour I was seeing double and did so for the rest of the day! However, I am most fortunate to have a generous sister who is also a beader. She very kindly gave me some size 8 for me to practice on. I just knew I could master this technique and it was so satisfying to succeed after the frustration of not being able to do it at the guild workshop. Peyote stitch reminds me of cross stitch or needle point; it's quite logical and self-correcting. This weekend I made two of the sheep. There's also an adorable cat but I don't have the beads for that. My hope is that with enough practice I'll be able to use the gorgeous beads Jeanine provided and make those delicate little weavings.

The one on the left is for my sister; I plan to stitch it to a felted project bag. She also suggested that a cloud would look awfully nice in the deep and wide sky. Horror vacui? On the right is the first amulet I made. (I'm going to call it something else -- I'm very uncomfortable with the word "amulet.) It's a little funky, with an extra row of beads on either side and lots of starting and ending threads. We'll hang it up on the front door of our "country" house to indicate that a fiber artist lives there.

Can heavy beads withstand the weight if hung up? Will the sun rot the threads? I'll find out, won't I?