Bead and wire floral work is an old medieval art form. Its origin is murky but probably started in Germany with the development of steel needles and wire. The technique was popular in Italy with all the bead making there and in France. The French made "immortelles" - funeral wreaths which were placed on grave sites. Perhaps that's why it is known as French beaded wire flowers. Victorian ladies also loved decorating with beaded flowers.
The art is still flourishing today. One example are the moving memorials to the victims of September 11. Three beaded wreaths were made by an international group of artisans - United States, Canada, Australia, Italy, England, Switzerland, and France. They are now on permanent display at Ground Zero in New York, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. (Update - link no longer available).

FREE TUTORIALS

There are many tutorials available to make all kinds of flowers. Use them as focals in necklaces, as brooches and hair ornaments. You can also use them for non-jewelry articles like napkin rings, bridal bouquets and home decor. Seed beads are inexpensive unlike Swarovski crystals.

There are two distinct styles. Victorian beaded flowers are made with the beaded wires running horizontally across each petal. An example is this awesome tutorial  by Bead Studio  shown above which I featured before in the post about 3 bead and wire flower tutorials. If you've made little beaded animals before, you will be familiar with the right angle weave technique. You add beads as you go along.

Rachel Dayan's video tutorial shows you how an individual petal is constructed. There are more tutorials to follow to complete the bouquet if you check her Youtube channel.



Vintage Beaded Flower tutorial by Craftbits.com is similar and has an accompanying tutorial for easy beaded sprays.

This Victorian Beaded Flower tutorial is by Jewellery from Craft Cove.

Beadjewelrymaking.com has a lovely bead and wire rose tutorial.






French beaded flowers are made by bending the beaded wires over as you can see in Jennifer Walker's French Flower tutorial on eHow.com. You have to thread all the beads onto the wire spool first. The wire only goes through each bead once unlike the Victorian style. It's a matter of personal preference but some people find the Victorian method neater.

The Glass Butterfly has this lovely bead and wire Orchid tutorial in the French style.

Simple Twisted Wire Flowers
This earring tutorial by maryafoya is really easy and will suit a beginner if you are daunted by the above classic tutorials. (update : link no longer available)

I also love the DIY twisted wire wedding beaded bouquet and boutonnierre tutorials by Project Wedding. Both are relatively easy to do and fast if you use a power drill. The bouquet is just stunning!

The Artistic Wire company has a beaded floral bouquet brooch tutorial which you might like (update : link no longer available). 









There are tons of books on the technique. Check out your local lending library - it's free. However, a drop dead gorgeous how to book I have to show is the one by Minako Shimonagase's Bead Flowers.  Click on the link or the image to be taken to Amazon where you can look inside the book and see why I rave about it.


If you missed that marvelous Swarvoski bead and wire Secret Garden bracelet tutorial, check my past post. Many readers were nearly hyperventilating when they first saw it!

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
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