Prismatic Right-Angle Weave (PRAW)

I've been playing with prismatic right-angle weave, or PRAW. So what's PRAW, you may ask? Well, the short answer is that it's the technique of cubic right-angle weave (CRAW), applied to the geometry of prisms.

Prismatic Right-Angle Weave

PRAW is a relatively new term, but it describes a variation of CRAW that's been around for a while. Marcia recently blogged about the consensus around the PRAW term in relation to her gorgeous Ancient Bells necklace. Basically, the great thing about CRAW is that it's such a versatile stitch that can be adapted in many different ways, but many variations of this technique have gone beyond the "cubic" part of CRAW to the point where what's being stitched is no longer a cube, but rather a prism. While PRAW adds another term to the lexicon of beadweaving, the good news is that if you already know CRAW, you're in great shape to learn PRAW.

One way to think about PRAW is that if one unit of CRAW makes a square-shaped room with four walls, a square floor, and a square ceiling, PRAW starts with a different shape for the floor. If you make the floor a pentagon, then you will have five square walls, and the ceiling will also be a pentagon. This can be described as PRAW-5. PRAW-3 has a triangle for its floor and ceiling and three square walls, PRAW-4 is the same as CRAW, PRAW-6 has a hexagon for its floor and ceiling, and this stitch can be expanded to PRAW-7, PRAW-8, and beyond. Finally, since a cube is special a type of prism, CRAW is also a type of PRAW, and all the beading tips and tricks that are used in CRAW (such as turns, joins, and embellishments) can apply to PRAW too.

PRAW Beaded Ropes

PRAW is an excellent method to vary the thickness of a CRAW beaded rope while keeping the detail that you get from using small seed beads. I made four bracelets using this stitch using size 11 seed beads punctuated by units of crystals. From left to right, the bracelets are in PRAW-6, PRAW-5, PRAW-4 (CRAW), and PRAW-3.

PRAW Beaded Ropes

Since I can't get enough of beaded beads, I had to make a handful of them using PRAW. These beaded beads use PRAW-3 through PRAW-6, and use fire polish beads for the floors and ceilings and bicone crystals for the walls.

PRAW Beaded Tilings

Individual PRAW units can be joined together at their square sides to make both 2D and 3D beadwork. Gwen's used this stitch to make some amazing 3D beaded sculptures, as well as an adorable beaded heart pendant. I used the same strategy to combine PRAW-4 and PRAW-5 units to create this beaded flower.

PRAW in Beaded Flowers

Speaking of flowers, several of my floral designs actually already use PRAW (though I didn't know it at the time :) ). PRAW is used for the flowers in my Sakura Charm, Poinsettia Bracelet, and Prism Blossom Pendant designs.

Live Webinar!

If you'd like to learn more about this stitch, I'm giving a PRAW webinar on March 24 at 1 PM EDT. The webinar is in the style of an academic lecture; I'll talk about the history and technical details of this stitch, and several artists other than myself have graciously contributed photos of beautiful beaded eye candy to this talk. The format is very much like my beaded bead webinar; you can think of it more as a TED Talk rather than a Craftsy how-to video, although anyone who registers for this webinar will receive a PDF that describes how to make bracelets and simple beaded beads using the PRAW stitch. If you're interested, you can register for it at the Interweave Store. Attendees will have the chance to ask questions at the end of the presentation.

If you can't make it on March 24, you can watch it later! Anyone who registers for the webinar will receive a link to download the archived version, which you can watch as many times as you'd like.

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