Video Tutorial – Techniques: Square Stitch

This video tutorial is about how to do Square Stitch. It’s a really useful stitch and can be used in many ways. If you like working on pictures, then Square Stitch is perfect, because you can draw out a picture on graph paper or tesselate a photograph and reproduce it in Square Stitch, as the beads sit exactly beside and on top of each other, as do the squares of graph paper and the pixels in a photograph. One of the great things about Square Stitch is that it can be extended multi-directionally. but don’t forget that all-important final pass through all the beads to strengthen it all up!

Square Stitch is also a great foundation layer for building a three-dimenstional piece of beadwork. If, for example you want to build a frothy, frilly fringe bracelet from a square stitch foundation, then you can work dangly fringe stitches between each bead of each row of the square stitch foundation, and know that each stitch will be equally spaced from the last. It’s easy to count in bead distances on a Square Stitch foundation, and therefore space embellishments easily too.

Square Stitch can be worked in the round (circular), tubular, and three-dimensionally and also it’s fun to vary the bead sizes either in an organised fashion to fan it out or chaotically in free-form. There’ll be videos coming soon on all of these.

In this video I’m wearing:
Byzantine Cross, made in size 15º Miyuki seed beads (24K gold plated), embellished with Swarovski crystals. When I teach the Byzantine Cross workshop we work in size 11º seed beads, although the pattern also covers the design in sizes 8º, 15º and Czech Charlotte 15º. The instructions will be available soon in my online Beadschool shop.

Materials used in this video:
Fireline 4lb Smoke – Stitchncraft
Flatnose pliers (for flattening the end of the Fireline, for threading) – Stitchncraft
Size 12 needle – Stitchncraft
Matsuno Size 8 seed beads – GJ Beads

Links to suppliers:
Stitchncraft
GJ Beads