if you use the greatest possible amount of strands that will fit through the holes of all the beads then any braiding, macrame or knotting between the beads will be too fat to slide inside.
it looks as though this may be a 4- or 6- strand braid, or else "crowning" -something i teach and which is always very lovely with the large-holed trade beads.
the loop appears to be buttonhole stitch. then the only bit where you have to be ingenious is hiding any cut-off ends.