Woven gemstone ropes?

battah

battah

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Jun 22, 2013
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This is a non-pearl question, but I've been loving these woven gemstone ropes that are all over Etsy, and wondering how to create one for myself. Does anyone know what technique is used to make them? They look fairly similar to each other, this is just one of many photos I've come across. They all say that they're vintage woven ropes, but I can't figure out what technique was used. I'd love any insight. Thanks!

garnets.jpg
 
Pattye, don't they look so juicy and delicious? I love nugget gemstones like that! I've been poking around online and have found a few beadweaving techniques, but when I try them nothing looks quite right (though admittedly I'm not using the same type of beads, the garnets I have are faceted and have less of a nugget shape).

enbcfsobe, I tried doing a cubic right angle weave last night but it didn't look quite the same - lots of gaps between the beads. I haven't tried herringbone, that's next on the list. I also tried a tubular peyote stitch and it was pretty, but also didn't feel quite right. Maybe I need to get some nugget shaped beads to try these stitches on to see if I can nail it. Thanks!
 
They could be needle woven, in which case peyote stitch or herringbone stitch.

They could be crocheted. If done tightly with beading thread, you don't see the thread, just the beads.

Or they could be kumihimo, which is Japanese braiding with 4 to 8 threads, all with beads on them.

Because the beads are baroque in shape, it's hard to tell the exact method of construction.
 
Thanks for the input, all. Bweaves I tried to do a few different things with kumihimo (8-strand with beads on all strands, then an 8 strands with beads on half) and they didn't come out with the same look. I'll snap some photos of my experiments so you can see. I also tried tubular peyote with seed beads and felt like it didn't look the same, but maybe I need to try it with fire polished or nuggety beads to get the same look.

Perlas those are beautiful! I've been playing with peyote stitch with seed beads, I think I need to try some larger beads to get a similar look to that rope. I tried doing it starting with a 4-bead loop to keep the rope on the more narrow side (esp because the beads are a bit bigger and I don't want it to get too huge), I'll try that again tonight with bigger beads and see how it looks. I did it with 8/0 seed beads and it didn't look right to me... I do need to work on tightening up my stitches though, I felt like way too much thread was showing. Photos coming...
 
ok here we go.

Kumihimo rope I made - it used a LOT of beads. I think I needed 12 strands of loose beads, so that was kind of a lot. See how wide it is?
20160621_195617-600x800.jpg

Next is cubic right angle weave, which I'm still figuring out, done with seed beads (8/0). It seems blockier than the goal pic?
20160619_201823-600x800.jpg

And here's cubic right angle weave with some faceted but fairly irregular garnet beads. Still looks sort of blocky.
20160619_204325-600x800.jpg

I thought I had pics of a tubular peyote attempt but I guess I don't. I'll try that tonight.
 
There are different kumihimo braids, and they give different looks. But, like I said before. It's really hard to tell.
 
fusionbeads has some really helpful CGI-illustrated tutorials that give a good sense of how the weaves are constructed -- it might be helpful to compare those to the ropes you are seeing. or search etsy for tutorials -- often tutorial listings will describe the type of weave used, which is helpful if you just want to experiment on your own!
 
Thanks! enbcfsobe, I was combing through the fusion beads tutorials yesterday, they're pretty great. I'm thinking peyote stitch might be the answer and I just didn't do it right last time, or the beads I used were too different from these gemstone beads so they gave the rope a different look. I'll keep playing and will post photos of what I come up with.
 
This has been a really interesting read! The ropes done up in seed pearls remind me of the woven Georgian seed pearl jewelry and to a small extent Art Deco sautoir necklaces. I really like the look :) I'm going to have to put this on the future project list. Can't wait to see your progress battah.
 
possible that they are spiral rope but woven with all the same size beads (instead of the typical pattern where the core is a different size)?
 
Do you mean a cellini spiral?

(agreed, MSC, this is fun! I like puzzles like this).
 
Marianne said:
Spiral rope and cellini are totally different! :)
Click to expand...

Oops, I just googled spiral rope, my mistake! Very pretty though. Cellinis are my new jam, I made one the other day and now I want to make them in every color.
 
I have an update of sorts here - I bought one of these woven garnet ropes from Etsy because I felt bad trying to duplicate someone else's work. I bought it 2+ weeks ago. The seller initially responded to emails and told me when she would ship, and sent me a tracking number, but it's been over a week since then and the tracking info hasn't updated and she hasn't responded to my emails (we live in the same state so it should have gotten here pretty fast if it had actually shipped). So hopefully I'll have something to fiddle with soon, but maybe not...
 
I'm not remotely an expert, but I'm always happy to share what I know and try to help you get started! It's a fun hobby.
 
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