Beaded bead pendant tutorial

*Instruktioner på svenska finns HÄR.*

The beaded bead I've made is based on a basic right-angle weave, using a variation on a technique known as fyrkantsteknik in Sweden (read more about it here).

I'm afraid the illustrations I made for my first version of these instructions are far from perfect, but I do hope you will be able to decipher them. If you are new to this technique, you might find the basic step-by-step instructions at Bijoux en Perles to be very useful as the illustrations are much better. You will only be making one row of cross-weaving here.


To make one pendant you need:

12 square bicone glass beads, 6 mm
16 crystal bicones, 4 mm (one or two colours)
20 15/0 japanese seed beads
2 crystal bicones, 6 mm
1 headpin
Illusion cord, fishing line or Fireline

Tools: Needles if using Fireline, round-nose pliers, chain-nose pliers.


1. Making the beaded bead: Begin by cutting a 50 cm length of thread and string four square bicones on it. Centre the beads on the thread and go through the last bead on the left side with the thread in your right hand so the threads cross. Tighten the thread.



2. Keep adding beads by stringing two square bicones on your left thread, one on the right thread and cross the latter throught he second bead added on the left. Repeat and end by adding one bead to each thread. Go through the first bead with one of the threads so it ends up next to the second thread, "zipping together" the beaded bead. Make a surgeon's knot and go through the first bead with the second thread. Pull the threads to tighten the knot and slide it into the bead.

3. Now you will have two threads coming out through the square bicone, one on each side. Add 1 seed bead and 1 crystal bicone to each thread. Add 1 seed and cross the thread through it (see picture below). Add 1 bicone and 1 seed to each thread. Cross the threads through the square bicone opposite the one you exited in step 2. Pull the thread tight. You might need to push the beads towards the first square bicones for them to lay centred.

4. Repeat step 3 on the three remaining sides of the cube. After making the last crystal cross motif, go through the square bicone with only one of the threads and knot both threads together before pulling the knot into the beads as in step 2. You may want to glue the knot for extra security. Cut off excess thread.

5. Making the pendant: Add 1 6 mm bicone to a headpin, followed by the beaded bead and a second large bicone. End by making a wrapped loop (see instructions here).


To make the pendants in the first photo, I used the following colours:

Beaded bead 1
square bicones: amethyst
4 mm crystals: mat fire opal (Swarovski custom coating)
seed beads: transparent light topaz
6 mm crystals: Sun


Beaded bead 2
square bicones: smokey grey
4 mm crystals: indicolite and cataloupe
seed beads: gunmetal
6 mm crystals: rose satin