The balls on these earrings were inspired by Monkey's Fist Knots.
Instead of being a knot, they are 3 rings of flat peyote connected in the same way the knot is tied. This knot is an excellent way of visualizing 3 dimensions because the wraps go tall, wide, and deep.

You will need:
3 colors of Delica size 11 beads
Beading needles
Scissors
Also helpful- tweezers

For the earrings you'll also need:
2 headpins
some spacer beads
earring wires

The ball is made of 3 strips of peyote, 2 beads wide, and 12 beads long. These work up very fast. Make one in each color. 2 of them you'll close into rings, and the third you'll leave open.
This illustration shows the thread path for the peyote. Put on the first three beads, then pass your needle and thread through the first bead in the opposite direction, knot the tail and working thread tightly against the top of the first bead, then add a bead and go back through the second bead. Zip back and forth that way, adding beads to make the strip.

This illustration shows how to join the ends to make a ring.

After you have the first 2 rings done and the strip made for the 3rd ring, put the first two rings together. One in the other one. From the top it will look like a cross, from the side it will look like this.

Now it's time to add the 3rd ring. This is where tweezers can come in handy. Thread the strip through the inner ring and over the outer ring. Close it up.
Hopefully this helps show what I mean.

Weave in ends and clip them close.
Now the ball is done. You can thread it on a headpin or include it in a necklace by going through the gaps between the rings.

To make the earrings as shown, make 2 of the balls, and 2 peyote stitched beaded beads. Mine are 5 beads long and 6 beads high, zipped shut.

On headpins, put a small heishi type spacer on the headpin, a beaded ball, another heishi, the beaded bead, and a heishi with any other decorative beads you want to finish. Make a loop on the headpin, attach it to the earring wire.

If you want to learn how to tie Monkey's Fist Knots and lots of other great decorative knots, I really recommend Suzen Millodot's books. They are some of my favorites for knot tying for jewelry.(Affiliate links)


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