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FAVORITE LINKS

Alexis Beads: Alexis has the most comprehensive list of beading links on the Internet and some really beautiful patterns available for free. The site is in English, German and French, and it is a real treasure.

About.com’s Beadwork Forum: A friendly and informative bead forum moderated by Paula Morgan where you can ask questions and post samples of your work. There’s an incredible wealth of beading information here, contributed by fellow beaders of all experience levels.

Bead-Patterns.com: Sova Enterprises has created a unique and wonderful Web site for beaders and designers. There are literally hundreds of bead patterns for sale in downloadable PDF format (or you can have Sova print and mail them to you). There's also quite a few free patterns available, as well as lots of free instructional material on the diferrent beading stitches and techniques.

The Bead Bugle: The Bead Bugle is an online bead magazine from BeadBabe. Although they’ve now started to offer patterns for sale via PDF (free to premium subscribers), there’s TONS of free stuff available in the archives, including a number of beautiful designs by Alice Korach.

Bead Inspired Canada: Bead Inspired Canada is a free ezine produced in Canada to showcase Canadian bead designers. It started in 2005 and so far they have released issues monthly, available for download in PDF form. Along with articles about bead designers and beading techniques, they always include several free patterns in each issue. The March issue (Issue 3) has a free pattern from Sandra D. Halpenny, one of my favorite designers.

Beadwrangler Samples: This site contains lots of well-written tutorials on a number of beadweaving techniques: bead crochet, bead embroidery, netting, brick stitch, herringbone stitch, peyote, the square stitch and right-angle weave. There’s also some great information on the history of beadweaving techniques.

Eagle Spirit’s Beadwork Tutorials: Eagle Spirit is a wonderful resource for beaders. At this site, you can find fully illustrated instructions for many different weaves, as well as variations of the weave: African netting, chevron weaves, traditional and Potowatami daisy chains, the Karmen necklace and weave, Victorian lace and lots more.

Guide To Beadwork: The Guide to Beadwork is Greg Vinson’s online book that contains fully illustrated and detailed instructions for the chevron and daisy chain, as well as the gourd stitch (circular peyote technique), flower stitch, twill stitch (even count peyote), brick stitch and lace stitch (netting). There’s also an entire chapter on creating fringe.

Howling Rabbit: Howling Rabbit is home to the infamous St. Petersburgh Chain tutorial. There are also directions for a pretty chevron chain and the Nepal stitch.

Robyn’s Bead Page: Robyn has put together a collection of 10+ tutorials that are especially ideal for beading beginners because they are so well-written and fully illustrated. Her Double Diamond Stitch is one of my favorites.

Ruby’s Jewelry Design & Beadwork: The author of Beading With Ruby also has a number of free tutorials up on her Web site. Her “Daisy Bracelet” and “Another Daisy Variation Bracelet” are especially stunning.

Theresa’s Beadwork Tutorials: Theresa has some very pretty necklace and bracelet patterns up on her Web site, as well as a couple maille tutorials at “The Maille Page.”