Another of my favourites and a very popular stitch among beaders is spiral rope. Also known as spiral rope chain, spiral staircase or spiral stitch, it is very versatile and you can make it as simple or as embellished as you like.
There are two sets of beads in spiral rope, the core beads and the outer beads. The core beads run through the centre of the rope, these are usually the same colour and size throughout. The outer beads spiral around the core beads and can be one colour and bead type or a combination of several. You can achieve a multitude of different effects simply by changing the combination of colours, sizes and types of beads you use.
For this tutorial I'm making a very simple rope using size 11 seed beads with 3 outer beads over 4 core beads.
1. With a comfortable length of thread, pick up 4 core beads and three outer beads. Slide them down the thread leaving a tail of about 8-10".
2. Sew through the 4 core beads once more, in the same direction.
3. Position the beads so that the outer beads are on the left.
4. Pick up 1 core bead and three outer beads. Keeping the first set of outer beads pushed to the left, sew through the top 3 core beads.
5. Sew through the single core bead that you just added before pulling the thread snug.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 until the rope is as long as you need, pushing the outer beads to the left each time.
Note: You can push the outer beads to the right if your prefer, just make sure you push them all in the same direction throughout the rope.
Here are a few finished ropes in various colours...
I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial, please leave a comment if you have any questions or tips you'd like to share!
