I have been asked to come up with a peyote stitch project which uses crystals, so today I'm working on something new to give me a break from my bangles.

Now, I am all about peyote stitch and seemingly at the moment all about crystals, so this is right up my street!

I have made many variations on these simple beaded beads over the years but never written them up as a project. Making a set of them, along with a peyote rope to thread them on, has been on my "to-do list" for a long while and now seems the perfect time to get to it.

I have also been itching for a reason to use these amazing copper seed beads I bought last year, from Beads By Blanche, so I'm killing a few birds with one stone with this project.

The beaded beads themselves are nice and easy to make, which the project needs to be, and it just took me a few experiments to work out the exact bead and row count etc I wanted to use.

However, there was one stumbling block- the thread.

As I was worried the copper beads may have sharp edges, I decided to not use my favourite thread, good old Nymo, but instead to dive in and once again try using Fireline.

I have previously only experimented with it and absolutely hated it so was expecting the same experience this time. But so far... it's ok.

It's slippy surface is proving to be very tiring on my hands, and I ended up having to stop beading due to hand and finger cramps, but I am hoping this will get better with familiarity and maybe putting some matte tape on my hands to help me get a better grip.

But what is good is that it's not tangling as much as I remember and is holding up to the beads and the tension I'm pulling it under. But I do admit so far I am only using it for single lengths, I haven't yet tried joining in a new thread and this is what scares me.

For a long time now I have used a nice easy method of adding new thread which involves making a slip-knot on the new thread and joining it to my old one. I then carry on beading- it takes seconds and it never fails me- and I am a lazy beader!

So, the thougth of weaving in thread ends, faffing around etc really puts me off using a new type of thread. Worrying about this, I put a call out on my Facebook page andhave been inundated with great tips and advice on using Fireline.

I still haven't had a go at joining in a new section yet, I'll save that for beading the rope, but am slightly less worried about it now.

P.S. of course before stopping beading for the day I couldn't resist getting started on my new necklace to match my recent bangle.