Care of Beaded Flowers

I just thought I'd mention a bit about the making and care of beaded flowers

Beaded flowers are often made with either the French Beaded method OR the Victorian Beaded Method.

Both of these methods require hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of tiny seed beads that are threaded onto wire.

They are then bent, twisted, and shaped into the individual parts of the flower. Then the parts are joined together and the stems taped with floral tape to create all sorts of different flowers.




To clean your beaded flowers:

The simplest and safest ways are a feather duster or compressed air.

If the flowers need more than that, you can use a damp cloth to lightly rub the beads.

If they need a more serious clean, you can dip the flower heads in warm soapy water, then rinse thoroughly. Every bit of moisture must be removed with a hair dyer on the lowest setting, or dried thoroughly in fresh air. Even a tiny bit of moisture left can cause it to rust.

With reasonable care your flowers should last a VERY long time, although some of the colours may fade with time.




Beaded Flowers are available from:

Flower Cove
Or email: craftcove@gmail.com

Beaded Flowers now available

an assortment of beaded flowers

Beaded flowers are now available from my web site. There's French Beaded flowers and Victorian Beaded flowers, other types coming soon.

beaded flowers

French beading

Victorian beading

20% Off ALL items listed in my Artfire Studio

Everything in my Artfire studio has been discounted by 20%, for this month only.

See here for details: Craft Cove Artisan Studio

Victorian Beading OR French Beading!!

Victorian Beaded Lily

Victorian Beaded lily

French beaded lily

French beaded lily

Victorian beaded flower

Victorian beading

French beading

French beaded flower

I thought I would show the difference between French Beading and Victorian Beading.

I always thought they were the same thing, but I've since discovered I was wrong.

I made similar flowers using the 2 different methods to show the difference. I'll probably make some tutorials soon.

Victorian beaded flower

Victorian Beading is made similar to ladder stitch and has similarities to Right Angle Weave. Is is made with horizontal lines of beads and both ends of the wire go through the whole row. There are more or less beads added to each row, to create the shape of the petal. This method can also be used to make the 3D animals that I showed in a previous post. They were made by every alternate row being behind the other, in a zigzag pattern to create the back and front.

Victorian beaded rose

Victorian beaded rosebud

 Victorian beaded daffodil

Victorian Beading is also know as English or Continental Beading.

Victorian beaded flower

French Beading is done with rows of beads that are twisted onto a separate section of wire at the top, then the row of beads is passed down the other side, and to another section at the bottom, where it is twisted around again and then goes back to the top. This is shown in the lillium flower.

Another way of doing it is to twist a long row of beads together at the ends, shown in the rounded petal flowers.

French beaded rose

French beaded rosebud

French beaded flower

With French Beading all the beads are thread onto the wire before beginning, and the wire is left on the spool and not cut till the end.

French beaded flower

French beaded fuchsia

I can't decide which looks better.

What do you think??

Victorian Beading

Victorian beaded dog

Victorian beaded monkey

Victorian beaded monkey

Victorian beaded duck

At first I thought this beading style was another type of French Beading, but I've since discovered it's actually Victorian beading. They're similar, but French Beading is created with the wires twisting at each row end, whereas Victorian beading is more like Right Angle Weave.

I just love the wonderful 3D animals that can be made with this weave, they just look so good. They're very much like the Beadies that's popular with kids, but this is a bit more difficult and creates three dimensional objects instead of just flat ones.

I'll have to do some more French beading soon too!