Peyote pattern maker

How to turn a photo into a bead pattern

1. Open the photo and drag across it to crop to the part you want. Bold shapes with a plain background bead best; a bracelet 24 beads wide cannot show a whole landscape.
2. Pick the stitch: peyote (even or odd count), brick stitch, loom or square stitch. The chart redraws in that stitch's offset.
3. Pick the bead, or type its width and height. The chart draws each bead at that shape and gives the finished size.
4. Set the width in beads, or as a finished width in cm or inches, and choose 2 to 16 colours. Raise “merge runs” to remove single-bead specks.
5. Bead from the word chart. Tap the row you are on; tap each run as you pick it up and it is struck through. The page remembers your place on this device. Download the PDF to work from paper.

Why a square grid will not do

Seed beads in these stitches do not sit in a square grid. In flat peyote each column sits half a bead higher or lower than its neighbour; in brick stitch each row sits half a bead to the side of the one below; only loom and square stitch line up straight. The beads are not square either. MIYUKI's own size table gives an 11/0 cylinder bead as 1.6 mm across, and 77 of them strung side by side make 10 cm, so each is about 1.30 mm along its hole. Peyote, loom and square stitch run the thread across the rows, so a bead there is 1.30 mm wide and 1.6 mm tall; brick stitch runs it up and down, so the same bead is 1.6 mm wide and 1.30 mm tall. A chart drawn on square paper for 30 × 60 cylinder beads in peyote comes out 3.9 cm wide and 4.9 cm tall, not the 1 : 2 rectangle it looked like. This page draws every bead at your bead's shape, in its offset place, so the chart already looks like the finished piece.

The three bead sizes, from the maker's table

From MIYUKI, “Size and Bead Count Data” (fetched 2026-10-20). Length along the hole = 100 mm ÷ beads per 10 cm.

• Cylinder 11/0: 1.6 mm across, 77 per 10 cm (1.30 mm long), about 200 per gram.
• Round seed 11/0: 2.0 mm across, 69 per 10 cm (1.45 mm long), about 110 per gram.
• Round seed 8/0: 3.0 mm across, 47 per 10 cm (2.13 mm long), about 39 per gram.

The maker calls these figures a guide: sizes vary by lot, and other makers' beads differ. Measure ten of your own beads in a row and type the size if it matters.

How each stitch is read

• Even-count peyote: the first pass strings rows 1 and 2 together, every bead across from left to right, because those beads “will stagger to form the first two rows” as you work row 3; then each row turns and comes back the other way with half as many beads (Create Whimsy, fetched 2026-10-20).
• Odd-count peyote: the same first pass, but rows 4, 6, 8 and on end on the right with no “up” bead to go through, so they finish with the odd-count turn, a figure-eight through the rows below (BeadJewelryMaking, fetched 2026-10-20).
• Brick stitch: row 1 is a bead ladder built from the left; every later row starts with two beads on the end thread bridge where the last row finished, so rows go back and forth and each sits half a bead out at its start (BeadJewelryMaking, fetched 2026-10-20).
• Loom: each row is picked up whole, pressed up between the warp threads and locked by passing back through above them, so every row reads from the same side; N beads across need N + 1 warp threads (Cut Out + Keep, fetched 2026-10-20).
• Square stitch: each row starts where the last ended, so rows go back and forth like brick stitch, but the beads line up straight (BeadJewelryMaking, fetched 2026-10-20).

In every chart here row 1 is the bottom row and column 1 the left. A word chart line reads like Row 5 (L→R): 2 A, 3 B, 1 A: pick up 2 of colour A, 3 of B, then 1 of A, working from left to right.

What it cannot do

• No bead-brand colour numbers. The legend gives each colour as a HEX code and a count; you match it to the beads you own (tap a swatch to type your bead's colour).
• Flat pieces only. No tubular or circular peyote, herringbone, right-angle weave, netting or 3D shapes, and no two-drop peyote.
• The outline is a rectangle. No shaped edges, increases, decreases or fringe; in brick stitch the edges step in and out by half a bead.
• Screen colours are not bead colours. Finishes (matte, lined, metallic, transparent) change a bead's colour more than any screen can show.
• Counts are a chart count. They count the beads in the chart plus your spare percentage; grams appear only when you type beads per gram.
• Saved on this device only. The photo is kept in this browser's storage (IndexedDB) and the settings and bead tracker in local storage. “Clear saved work” deletes all of it.

Questions

Is this peyote pattern maker free and online, and is my photo uploaded?

Free, with no sign-up. The photo is read by this page in your browser and never sent anywhere; you can switch off the network after the page loads and it still works.

Can I make a seed bead bracelet pattern?

Yes. Set the width in beads (a cylinder 11/0 peyote cuff 2.5 cm wide is 19 or 20 beads, 25 mm ÷ 1.30 mm) and the rows for the length: 18 cm of even-count peyote in cylinder beads is about 224 rows, because each row adds half a bead height (0.8 mm). Crop the photo to a long strip first so it fills the band.

Should I choose even- or odd-count peyote?

Even count is easier: every turn is the same. Odd count has a bead in the very middle, so a design can be centred on it, at the price of the odd-count turn on one edge. The page rounds the beads across to an even or odd number to match.

How many warp threads does my loom pattern need?

One more than the beads across: a 24-bead loom pattern needs 25 warp threads.