Tubular Peyote Stitch Accents for Hoop Earrings

It is no secret that chunky gold hoops are back in style. The earrings shapes vary, some are traditional hoops, others are more geometric and feature details in their shaping. Though I do not have much gold jewelry (beaded or not), I have seen this trend so often that I feel the need to at the very least try it, but with a twist. Worst case scenario, my sister gets a new pair of earrings, lucky her. 

Above: Tubular peyote stitch accents for hoop earrings.

I have a rough idea of how I want these earrings to look. While I love larger earrings, I think starting at a smaller hoop size will be a good idea for a beginner like me. I also would have liked to add a bit of a twist to these hoops and instead of making the full circumference of the earrings beaded, I want to make beaded accents. By making beaded accents instead, I can switch the look of the earrings easily. For this time around, I am using gold size 11 seed beads. Feel free to substitute colors and sizes if you’re comfortable! 

Supplies: 

• Seed beads (I used size 11) 
• Beading Thread 
• Needle 
• Plain hoop earrings  
• Scissors 

Because of the way the earring clasp is positioned, I was worried that I needed a lot more beads, enabling it to fit over the clasp. In order to check this, I strung 10 beads onto the thread, leaving about a 6” tail. I was able to slide the beaded circle onto the earring with ease. I want these accents to move around and be simple to change out with other accents in the future, so making room is necessary. 

The first row and second row were a little difficult to stitch, but it started getting easier after the third stitch. Since the beads are identical, it was frequently difficult to figure out what my next step was. Once I got into a groove, the beads fell into the correct places, and it was faster to stitch. 

Make sure you have enough thread. Tubular peyote uses a lot more thread than I had expected, but since I was not going to go around the entire earring it was okay. I slipped the beaded portion on and off as I got further and further along. This allowed me to see if I was happy with the length or not. Once I got to my stopping point, I knotted the ends and slid the final beaded tube onto the earring. 

Related: Top 5 Tips for Tubular Peyote Stitch

While a pair of fully beaded tubular peyote stitch earrings would look amazing, I like how the shorter version turned out. This is a technique that I will continue to work on, in the future mixing colors and patterns to make some extra fun pieces. If you are a beginner like me, I recommend starting small. There are some resources on Interweave.com that helped me in making this fun and quick project and that will guide you in your peyote stitch journey, too! 

Happy Beading! 

Master Peyote Stitch