In this week’s free Deke’s Techniques video, Deke shows you how to festoon an ordinary path with a fabulous string of pearls made entirely from strokes applied in Illustrator. Thus the plain outlines on the left (below) become the bedazzled pathways on the right.

The effect is created by duplicating a “dashed” stroke (in which the dashes are really circles), coloring them in gradual shades of grey, and slightly offsetting on top of each other. Here is a detail, including the Appearance panel that tracks each stroke application, of the built-up beads along their path:

If you’re a member of lynda.com, check out this week’s exclusive movie in which Deke shows you how he made that O to match the Zapf Dingbats X inside Illustrator. If you’re not a member, you can get a free 10-day trial at lynda.com/deke to check it, and the entire treasured collection of Deke’s Techniques, out. Pearls of wisdom, indeed.