Beaded Peyote Triangle Step by Step Instructions (Flat, Open, and Tubular)

All photographs in this hub are copyrighted by me, Rose Clearfield. Please contact me if you would like permission to use any of them. Thank you!

For all of these triangles, you use a circular peyote stitch. I first learned this stitch from Carol Huber Cypher's Mastering Beadwork. This stitch is available in many other books, magazines, and online sources, too. If you do not have any experience with peyote stitch, I highly recommend practicing flat peyote stitch before attempting circular.

I did not invent any of these triangle techniques and do not claim any copyright to any of these designs. I learned the basics from other beadweavers. A fellow beadweaver contacted me recently, wanting some advice to get her started with triangles, and I put this together. Please feel free to share the directions with others.

At this point, I have not taken step by step direction photos for any of these triangles. Most of the directions are pretty self-explanatory if you have any experience with beadweaving. If you need further clarification on anything, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or contact me directly.

Flat, closed peyote triangles:

I create a stop bead that I work into the finished triangle. You can create a separate stop bead if you want. I create my stop bead and then make a circle with three delicas (one of which is the stop bead). I loop my thread through the circle twice (which I do with open and tubular triangles, too). The next row will have two beads in each spot, which creates the corners of the triangles. You’ll continue to work your way around, adding two beads for the corners, and stepping up at the end of each row. For earrings, I normally make the triangles with at least 1” sides (sometimes bigger, generally not smaller). For pendants, I normally make 2”-2½” sides. For the last row, sometimes I put one bead in the corner instead of two.

Flat, open peyote triangles:

Create a stop bead. Decide how many beads you would like to have per row. It must be an odd number. I’ve never made a triangle with more than 9 bead rows, but there really is no limit. Make sure to count your beads carefully for the second row so you put the corners in the right places. Normally my first few rows do not look anything like a triangle. It takes 4-5 rows for the piece to start taking a triangle shape. It’s really important to make sure that everything is pulled tight after every row so the shape doesn’t get warped. Otherwise, it’s the same as working a flat, closed triangle.

Tubular peyote triangles:
To create a tubular peyote triangle, start with a flat, open peyote triangle. I always end the last row with one corner bead instead of two so the “zipped” row corners end can share that single bead. This is what I’ve seen most people do on Etsy, but you’re welcome to do it a different way if you like. After I’ve created my flat triangle, I take out my stop bead and transition that thread out. You can wait until you’ve finished the piece, but I think that it’s easier to do it now. Then I take my main thread again and work my way back to the first row. I use this first row to build the other side of the triangle. It will take a couple rows to get the tubular aspect going. After you’ve worked back to the top, “zip” up the front and the back. If you need help with “zipping," let me know.

You can also make flat, open, or tubular squares using this same technique. Just add an extra side. Flat squares folded over make wonderful bails. I used a ceramic donut by Kristie Roeder (ArtisanClay on Etsy) for this necklace.

I’ve also folded over flat squares and flipped them the other way to make earrings like this.

Finally, I got a custom order to make some tubular squares back at Christmas for one of my teammates on Etsy. You can read more about them here. These were tricky because of the way the square likes to fold naturally, but they were fun.

When you get this technique down, there are numerous possibilities for it.

All photographs in this hub are copyrighted by me, Rose Clearfield. Please contact me if you would like permission to use any of them. Thank you!