Making French Bead Flowers Vibrant and Lifelike

One issue that is not often addressed is how French bead flowers can be made to look as lifelike as possible. Even with the finest construction techniques, the straightest basic rows and the most invisible lacing, bead flowers can look stiff and artificial and not like the exquisite natural objects they are imitating.

Here are a few ideas that will help your flowers to be their loveliest and most natural-looking. You can use these tips even if you are making a "fantasy" flower. A flower is a flower, after all, and even if the one you have created doesn't yet grow in nature, odds are that someday some botanist will develop it.

When making the petals and leaves, reduce the bottom basic wires to two instead of three. It may seem insignificant, but this one improvement will make a big difference in each flower. The flower stems should be as narrow as possible, so reducing these wires is important.

Tape the stemwires of each petal, sepal, leaf and center before constructing the finished flower. Tape tightly and use as little tape as possible. This will reduce "wobble" in your finished flower. Living flowers' parts don't move and neither should the parts of bead flowers. Be sure you have used enough wire for the stems of petals and leaves; leaving these wires too short can cause the flower to fall apart.

During construction, wrap the construction wire and tape as tightly as possible. If you are adding many layers of petals, stop after each layer and cover the construction wire wraps with green tape. I have found that, on large flowers that require many rows of flowers, construction wires for early rows tend to show through later rows. If green tape is all that is visible, the eye will ignore it; messy wire will pull the eye and ruin the flower's beauty. Push sepals right up under the base of the flower. Think of sepals as being a warm muffler in the winter: you plump that up right under your chin. A sepal that seems to spring right from the base of the flower will make the flower look rich and luxurious.

Now that you have the flower built, allow yourself to use some imagination. Take a look at living flowers. Compare several roses to each other, or several daisies. You will see variations among the individual blooms. Examine the way the stems may bend. Do the flower heads tip forward? Do some petals curve or curl more than others? Does a leaf twist rather than unfurl straight?

To copy nature's variations, you have a few tools at your disposal. The common pencil can help you make your roses breathtaking. Push the tip of your thumb into the bottom third of your rose petal, then curl the top backwards around a pencil. This will give the petal the shape that many varieties of rose possess. To make a twisted leaf, use two pliers (one at the top and one at the bottom) and twist in opposite directions. This effect can also be achieved by holding the leaf in a hemostat and using one plier to make the twist. For more shape, curl the top of the leaf backward a bit. For a different shape, "crease" the petal or leaf inward along its basic row and then roll the outer rows back to a more curved shape. You can combine these techniques to make infinite variations in the look of your flowers.

When the flowers are arranged in sprays, be sure to bend the tallest stem once to the left and once to the right. The top of the tallest stem should usually take another small bend so that it points straight up. Secondary stems can have one bend in them. This will give the spray motion and flow. Use one or two pliers to get this effect.

Most importantly, relax and enjoy the process. As you work with the flowers more and more, you will develop a "feel" for how they should look. With patience and practice, your flower-arranging skills will improve and give you great satisfaction with your arrangements.

For information on my instructional DVD set, please visit my website at http://www.rosemarykurtz.com

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A Vintage Art, 2.0

The European art of bead flowers is the hottest “new” art around. It’s truly a vintage art, 2.0.

Take a look! There are even DVD's to show you how to do it.

The art of making flowers out of beads strung on wire may have begun as early as the 1300’s in Germany, when metal wire was first developed. The simple loop posies that were probably made in that simpler time and place were the ancestors of a stunning array of modern-day creations.

Bead flowers can appear anywhere you might use silk or fresh flowers. Unlike living flowers or even silk ones, however, bead flowers can look fresh for a lifetime or more. They make ideal bridal bouquets, bridal headpieces, hair barrettes and corsages, to name just a few uses.

Recognize any of these names? Marie Antoinette, Napoleon’s Josephine, Patricia Nixon, Princess Caroline, Princess Grace of Monaco, William Randolph Hearst. Do you know what they have in common? All these people owned and treasured bead flowers.

Bead flowers can be made out of many kinds and styles of beads. For a great accent, some beaders use rhinestone centers in their flowers. Beads can be matte or pearly, colorlined or unlined, opaque or transparent, and the list goes on.

The great thing about bead flowers is that the artist’s creativity can be unlimited. Want to make a black rose? Go ahead. How about a “giant” version of a tiny living flower? Be our guest. Want to create a flower that looks like it’s from another planet? Sure, why not? New hybrids of living flowers are being created all the time. A twin to your “fantasy” bead flower could appear in the local garden stores soon.

Modern bead flowers are amazing, and you can learn how to make them. Take a look!


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