Getting Creative with the Herringbone Stitch

I have been in a herringbone stitch mood. With my last two designs, I played around with this stitch to see what the stitch will allow you to do. I wondered if one could create a type of free form herringbone project like the free form peyote projects. I discovered that it is actually easier combining different sized beads with the herringbone stitch than with the peyote stitch. Your bead work do not warp as much with the herringbone stitch when you combine different sized beads. I even found that when I added bigger beads in one column where the rest were smaller beads, I could simply compensate for the bigger bead by skipping to add to the bigger beads in a row or two. I discovered that one gets interesting effects when you add beads between your double columns. For example I made some bulges in the last bracelet I designed. Another technique that I discovered was to add fairly big beads into a double column. One could say this 'free form' herringbone is more structured and less 'wild' than the free form peyote. What is also nice about the herringbone stitch, is you can create shapes or patterns with vertical as well as horizontal lines which you cannot really do with peyote stitch. It is therefore easy to make squares, rectangles or chequered blocks. Here is a link to some of my latest designs: Cecilia's designs