Victorian Beading Tutorial

When I woke up this morning, I was all excited about attempting to make another beaded flower petal. It's the little things, you know. :) THIS tutorial is easy, and makes sense of what the diagrammed tutorial I used yesterday was saying. I'm a visual person, and watching her do this made the CLICK! go off in my brain. She doesn't say what gauge to use, but I would say use 28 or 30 gauge wire, dead soft. For jewelry, I'd use sterling silver wire - it simply adds a touch of elegance to the piece that it wouldn't otherwise have, and you can polish the wire that shows until it shines.

She only shows one petal here, but it's a very very helpful tutorial and you can build on it. Have fun!



She refers to her wire, at first, as "string." She means "wire."

You could do this with any small bead with a hole big enough to allow a double width of small-gauge wire to pass through.

This IS the technique I used last night, but it took me so long because the instructions I was using were NOT very comprehensive.

Enjoy!

Below she shows how to attach the petals together to make a flower. I would make several layers of petals and take some clear quilting thread, and holding the flower upside down, with the petals brought together in one hand and cupped (don't worry about bending them - you can shape them later) and stitch the petals approximately 1/4" from the bottom, all the way around. This will create a flower "hip" and will keep your flower petals from flopping. Then just bend your petals to create your flower!



And here she shows how to attach them to a stem. For this she is using heavier gauge wire, and you can also use floral wire and floral tape, if you desire. I prefer to bead my stems, though. That's a different technique than she shows here.