Versatile bead

Shelly asked me how I made my beaded beads for my beaded bead charms. I found this tutorial online, and thought I'd try it, even though I don't have most of the beads she names, and I really was hoping to not have to buy more. After I made it through the first two rows, I just went my own way with it. Basically, it's your ordinary peyote stitch beaded bead, only instead of increasing the size of the rows by adding more beads to each row, you put in bigger beads. The tut writer lists 5 different sizes of beads, and just don't have that many. I have seed beads (10/0), E beads (6/0), and a lot of much larger beads, because I bought them for wire wrapping, and traditionally don't string beads. The charm on the left has only two sizes of bead on it (and one really big one holding up the center).
That isn't really true - I started out with beading as a Girl Scout leader, making beady critters with those huge pony beads. They worked up quickly, and I was happy making camp crafts and figured jewelry would just be too time-consuming. Thus, I know all the stitches, it just isn't until recently that I made anything wearable with them.
I would recommend doing that if you are thinking about getting into beading but aren't sure you can do those tiny maneuvers - buy some pony beads, and master the stitches using them. I prefer curling ribbon as the cord for pony beads, as the slick surface allows the beads to slide on easily, but the ribbing keeps them from falling off.