Bead Love: beaded love letters

This tutorial was inspired by Chris Prussing’s Puffy Heart and Marcia De Coster’s Love Letters, stitched with right angle weave (RAW) and cubic RAW. I wrote this tutorial expressly to be given freely on this Bead Love blog, a blog of inspirations on love and beads. I have been so inspired by so many other wonderful designers in the bead weaving community, and this is a little way for me to say "thank you" to all of you who have inspired me. Here you can learn to bead hearts and the letters in LOVE with just one size of seed beads in two colors. Since you only need one bead size, you can use any size you want. The hearts above use 15° or 11°. The heart below uses 8° on the back (shown) and 3 mm bicone crystals on the front.

This tutorial starts with step-by-step instructions for weaving hearts using a stitch that I call super right angle weave (SRAW) because of its relationship to RAW. Both SRAW and RAW are made with loops of four beads, but SRAW also has loops of eight. You can learn more about SRAW on my blog, gwenbeads. This tutorial ends with charts for the letters in LOVE to get you started using SRAW to weave an alphabet. What better place to start, anything really, than with love?

Materials
One size of seed beads in two colors
Beading Thread
Beading Needle

SRAW Puffy Hearts in 3 Sizes
The smallest heart uses size 15° seed beads. The medium heart uses size 11° plus other beads for the arrow and hanger. The largest heart I made uses metal size 8° seed beads on both sides and 3 mm Swarovski bicone beads on the front. This large heart has 2 mm holes, making them large enough for a thin cord or chain. Of course, you could use plastic pony beads or even larger bead to make beaded hearts as large as you want.

Seed Bead Size     Heart Size
                            Height x Width x Thickness
15°           16 mm x 19 mm x 4 mm
11°                       22 mm x 25 mm x 6 mm
8° with 3mm         33 mm x 40 mm x 7 mm

1. Use moderately tight tension all the way through this project. Don’t apply a death grip, but snug is good. Figure 1 shows the chart for the heart up through loop 61. This chart is explained in detail in steps 2 through 12. After you complete the 61 loops in Figures 1 and 12, you can skip to step 13.

2. Thread your needle. Loop 1: Pick up 4R. Pass through the first two beads again in the same direction to make a loop. Slide the beads down the thread leaving a tail that is long enough to rethread and weave into the beadwork.
Loops 2-3: * Pick up
• 5 beads: G, 4 R.
Pass through the first R you just picked up. Repeat from *.
Loop 4: Pick up
• 3 beads: G R G.
Close the loop by passing through the 2nd R bead in the first loop. Then pass through 3 beads: G RR to position yourself to start the next stitch. You just stitched an irregular starting unit of SRAW.

3. Loops 5-6: * Pick up
• G, 4 R.
Pass through the first R you just picked up. Repeat from *.
Loop 7: Pick up
• G.
Pass through RG RG RR. You just stitched a regular unit of SRAW.

4. Repeat step 3, 6 more times.

5. End First Row of SRAW:
Loop 26: Pick up
• G, 4 R.
Pass through the first R you just picked up.
Loop 27: Pick up
• G R G.
Pass though RG RR.

6. Start Second Row of SRAW:
Loop 28: Pick up
• G, 4 R.
Pass through the first R you just picked up.
Loop 29: Pick up
• G R G.
Pass through RG RR GR.

7. New Repeat:
Loop 30: Pick up
• G, 4 R.
Pass through the first R you just picked up.
Loop 31: Pick up
• G.
Pass through RG RG RR GR.

8. Repeat step 7, 6 times.

9. End Second Row of SRAW:
Loop 44: Pick up
• G R G.
Pass through RG RG RG RG R.

10. Start Third Row of SRAW:
Loop 45-46: *Pick up
• G, 4 R.
Pass through the first R you just picked up. Repeat from *.
Loop 47: Pick up
• G.
Pass through RG RR GR.

11. Repeat step 7, 4 times, ending loop 55 as shown in Figure 11.

12. Loop 56: Pick up
     • G, 4 R.
Pass through the first R you just picked up.
Loop 57: Pick up
     • G R G.
Pass through RG RR GR.
Loop 58: Pick up
     • G R G.
Pass through RG RG RRG RRG R.
Loop 59: Repeat Loop 60.
Loop 60: Repeat Loop 61.
Loop 61: Pick up
     • G R G.
Pass through RG RG RG RG
RRG RG RG RG.

13. The Zip!
Now fold the beadwork in half to make a heart. You will now zip up the seam between the two layers. Starting on right: Pick up
     • R.
Pass through R on left. Pick up
     • R.
Pass through GR on right.
Pick up
     • G.
Pass through RG on left.

14. Continue zipping...
Starting on bottom layer: Pick up
     • R.
Pass through R on top. Pick up
     • R.
Pass through GR on bottom. Pick up
     • G.
Pass through RG R GR on top. Pick up
     • G.
Pass through R G on bottom. Pick up
     • R.
Pass through R on top. Pick up
     • R.
Pass through GR on bottom.

15. Continue zipping...
Starting on right layer: Pick up
     • G.
Pass through RG on left. Pick up
     • R.
Pass through R on right. Pick up
     • R.
Pass through GR on left.

16. You just added the first 3 beads in the figure below. Continue zipping:
*Pick up
• G.
Pass through R G R on other size. Repeat from * 3 more times.
All the beads are now added. Follow the green line below to balance the weave and make it symmetric.

17. Stitch around the top of the heart, using the thread path shown in figure 14, but do not add any beads this time. The extra thread will balance the weave and help the beads sit straight.

18. Weave the last little bit by stitching the thread path shown in figure 13, but going in the opposite direction, and do not add any beads.
Note. Start from the red bead near the arrow.

19. Tie off by weaving both ends of thread through the loops of beadwork. You don’t generally need to tie knots in SRAW if you secure your ends by weaving through 5 or 6 loops.

Variations and Inspirations...
Now bead yourself some love letters.

Below are the charts to get you started, but I'm not going to tell you how to do the zips. You will have to figure out how to do that part yourself. Think of them as little puzzles. One of the things I have always enjoyed about bead weaving different designs is that they are each their own little puzzle, and when you solve it, you win that thing.