Bead Weaving Techniques – St. Petersburg Stitch
Used extensively in Russian and Ukrainian beading, this stitch is very intricate and singular in appearance. In my opinion, it is one of the most difficult stitches to learn. I would highly recommend you master the more common, less tricky stitches such as peyote, brick, or square stitch before trying this one.
For instance, in the necklace (photo, below), each leaf was created with this stitch and took me a good 2 1/2 hours each to complete . . . keep in mind that I was already an experienced beader when I made this necklace, and you will get some idea of the expertise required. I also stitched the “twig” necklace base in spiral stitch, which while fairly simple to master, is also a time-consuming technique. The lovely butterfly and focal beads are cloisonne’. This piece was published in several Fire Mountain Gems catalogs as an artist’s feature.
