Vintage Beaded Bag - Totally Blog-worthy!

I found this at my local thrift store for $1.98 today. Naturally I snatched it before anyone else could. No thought required. It's perfect inside and out. Not a bead missing, no yellowing on the silk lining, original Hong Kong label, frame in excellent shape, clasp perfect, strap perfect. I couldn't believe it and since I do a lot of beading, I felt this purse was blog-worthy. If anyone who sees this post can identify the age for me, I'd be grateful. I'm thinking 30's-40's.

Bead Spinner - it ROCKS!!

I love my bead spinner. This is a suncatcher I made tonight. I think next one, I'll make the dragonflies, flowers and leaves in advance, wire them to the bare wire and thread the leftover wire tails through the beads already on the wire and then load more beads - that way the wire for the add-ons won't show as much. At least that's the plan. :)

French Beaded Rose

This little fleur is actually huge. It's got five layers of petals. The interior is AB gold miyuki 11/0 seeds and the outer petals are a mix of AB gold, maize, light brown and matte cream. I had to use two floral wires, bent in half to support the weight of the flower, and a ton of floral tape. The stem, which you can't see, is finished in green ribbon. I was going to add leaves, but I felt that would be gilding the lily (or rose, as the case may be!)

French Beaded Flower - My first one! YAY!

Well, I was asked to teach Victorian and French beading recently. I can do Victorian, but I'd never done French, so for the past two nights I've been teaching myself. Last night I worked on just getting the technique right. Thank GOD for a bead spinner! Tonight I started at around 11:00 PM (it's now 3:40 am) and finished up at about 1:30 a.m. I'm tired, but I accomplished my goal and now I just have to finesse it a little. The leaves are too small for the flower, but overall, I'm happy.

Victorian Beading - Today's Flower

I love the colors on this one, but I didn't achieve the effect I was going for, which was a lacy, open look to the edges of the petals. A fellow artisan suggested the lacy, open look might succeed with a lighter-coloured flower, so I'll try that next.

The "space" you see between the petals is wire weaving where the petals were stitched together using wire. I wove it through the loops at the end of each bead row, joining the petals together.

These actually look lovely under low lights or candlelight because of the Swarovski Crystals in them.

Front View:

Side View:

And both flowers together: (can you tell I'm proud of them?) For a first try at this, I AM pretty proud. Now I have to get REALLY good at it.

Victorian Beaded Flower - Using the Tutorial I posted here

I followed the tutorial I have posted here and just added my own touches. I didn't make the petals tapered on both ends, because I wanted to make a tulip. I made 7 petals and then "stitched" them into a cup-shape with wire. The stamens and pistils are Swarovski Crystals on wire and then fed down through the center of the flower and wrapped around the top of the stem (which was created by the leftover wires.

I modified the tutorial instructions a bit. Since my wires ended at the wide end and I wanted them ending at the narrow end, I just wove them down the sides of each petal. I then brought all the petals together by threading a wire through the bottom bead of each petal, making sure all the other wires were facing the outside of the flower and downward, pulling it tight and then wrapping it around the remaining wires, thus forming a "stem."

I "stitched" each petal to it's neighbor using wire, making sure I ended at the bottom, and secured those wires at the top of the "stem."

This is stupidly simple. Seriously. Each petal took me less than 10 minutes. The hardest part was stitching the last petal into place, since I was working in such a small area.

Try the tutorial. It's easy and it WORKS.

Now the photos:

Side View:

Front View:

Making Flowers from Scraps - for Scrapbooking or anything!

I really liked this. If you're creative you can figure out that you can take her technique and do it any old way you want. You can cut your petals from scrap cardstock or even wired ribbon. This is the thing I like about paper crafts- there is very little waste.