Skip to content
PLURcraftSign in

A Mask You Can See and Breathe In

  • Peyote stitch
  • All-nighter
  • 4 hr

A peyote mouth panel woven on fishing line, with 1 mm elastic ear straps. Panel size, where the straps anchor, and why a full-face build is the wrong idea.

A kandi mask is a flat peyote panel with straps. The stitch is nothing new — if you have made a peyote cuff you already know the entire construction — but the two habits people carry over from a cuff are both wrong here. A cuff is woven on stretch cord and zipped shut into a ring. A mask is woven on fishing line and never closes: it stays a flat panel, and the straps do the rest.

Three things make a panel wearable. It has to curve, so it sits off your mouth rather than against it. It has to stay loose enough to breathe through, which means resisting the urge to pull the rows tight for a crisper pattern. And the straps have to anchor below the top corners, so the tension pulls the panel back onto your cheeks instead of up into your line of sight.

The letters go on the row that lands across your mouth, and they should be short: PLUR, HYDRATE, BASS. You are asking somebody to read this from two metres away in a crowd.

One rule that is not about craft. A full-face beaded piece reads as a mask to a security officer, and several events explicitly prohibit gas masks. Mouth panels are the common form partly because they are the form that gets through the gate. Check the event’s own list — see kandi and the festival bag policy.

Work the panel from your first peyote panel, then come back for the straps. Panel charts live under masks.

What you need

  • Pony beads for the panel — a base color plus letter beads if you are spelling something
  • Fishing line (0.2mm monofilament) — 6 to 8 ft for the panel
  • 1mm stretch cord for the ear straps, roughly 6 inches per strap plus beads
  • Plastic beading needle
  • Scissors

Steps

  1. 1
    Size the panel to your face before you string anything

    Measure from just under one cheekbone, across the mouth, to the other. Most adult mouth panels come out around 11 rows tall by 25 columns wide in pony beads, but measure rather than trusting a number — a panel that reaches your eyes is a different object with different rules at a gate.

  2. 2
    Work the panel on fishing line, not elastic

    A mask panel has to hold its own shape, and stretch cord will not — it goes slack and the panel settles onto your lips. Weave the whole panel on fishing line. The only elastic on the finished mask is the two ear straps.

  3. 3
    Work the panel in flat peyote

    Build it exactly as in your first peyote panel: rows one and two strung together, then each new bead dropped into the gap of the row before. Odd column counts need the extra edge turn on every other row. Keep the letters, if you are using them, on one row across the middle where they sit over your mouth.

  4. 4
    Leave the panel open, never zipped

    A peyote cuff gets closed by zipping the two ends together. A mask does not: the panel stays open and flat, and the straps do all the holding. Ease the tension a touch along the top and bottom rows so the finished panel bows outward instead of pressing flat. That curve is what keeps it off your lips — a flat panel sucks against your mouth as soon as you breathe hard.

  5. 5
    Do not close the gaps

    Peyote worked at normal tension leaves visible spacing between beads, and that spacing is your airflow. Resist the urge to pull every row drum tight to make the pattern crisper; a tight panel is a panel you will take off after twenty minutes.

  6. 6
    Anchor the straps a few rows down from the top

    Attach at the corners, but start about three rows below the top edge rather than at the very top. That angle pulls the panel against your cheeks instead of up towards your eyes. Anchor at the matching point on the bottom corner too, so each side has two attachment points.

  7. 7
    Make the straps like short singles

    This is where the 1mm stretch cord goes. Cut about 6 inches per strap plus enough for beads, string a run of beads, and knot it through the corner beads so it forms a loop that goes behind your ear. Try it on before you trim: the loop wants to be snug enough to hold the panel up and loose enough that it is not cutting into the back of your ear after three hours.

  8. 8
    Wear it for twenty minutes at home

    Before you take it anywhere, put it on and do something mildly strenuous in it. You are checking three things: that you can breathe through your nose and mouth without the panel sealing, that it does not slide when you move your head, and that the ear loops are not sore. Adjust the strap length, not the panel.

  9. 9
    Keep it to the mouth

    Panels that cover the whole face read as a mask to security, and some events prohibit gas masks outright. A mouth panel is the standard form for a reason — check the current allowed-items page for the event you are going to before you build anything larger.

Try it on a pattern

Drip Mask

  • Masks
  • All-nighter
  • UV

5 hr 30 · mask · 275 beads · letters

Surgical PLUR Mask

  • Masks
  • Advanced

5 hr · mask · 275 beads · letters

Eclipse Band

  • Peyote
  • Weekend maker
  • UV

2 hr 10 · peyote · 126 beads

Next

That is the end of this track. Back to Learn or browse the charts.