French Bead Flowers

One of the "founding mothers" of French bead flowers in America, Virginia Nathanson, wondered the same thing when she saw some potted arrangements in the gift shop of Bonwit Teller in Manhattan a few decades ago. She used a rather drastic forensic method to get her answer: She bought one of the large arrangements, took it home, and took each flower completely apart. She dissected them; unwound the wires, broke them, cut them apart, destroyed them entirely. By this straightforward method, Ms. Nathanson discovered the construction techniques. She taught them for many years. She created one of the first series of French bead flower pattern books to be published in the U.S. You go, Ms. Nathanson!

You don't have to go to such lengths, however. I can give you the basics right here, in plain language. There are many techniques; what I will explain to you for the flower petals and leaf is called the "basic" technique, because the center of each piece is made on what is called a "basic row." What you'll really be doing is make a basic row, then just make some circles around it with more beads. The flower center will be made with the "continuous loop" technique. Feel free to take a look at some of the pix of my flowers as you read the instructions to help clarify things.

You need seed beads - gauge ten or eleven. I use them from "hanks," which are 20 strands of 12 inches of beads, tied together at the top. You'll need some in your flower color and some (but less) in green. You also need wire; matched to your flower color is best; also some green wire for the leaves. This wire should be gauge 24 or 26. Also, have a roll of green floral tape. You can get these materials in local craft stores. If you can't find beads in hanks, get a bagful; a vial will be too few.

Start with your flower color first. Transfer the beads from the hank or bag onto the wire. There are many techniques for doing this, but you can just pinch them off the string and feed them onto the wire if that works. It doesn't matter how you do it, just so the beads get onto the wire. Curl or "crimp" the end of the wire so the beads don't fall off.

Push an inch of beads to within three inches of the end of the spool wire. Now, make a loop of the spool wire under these beads, and twist the top of the loop a few times. When you're just learning this technique, make the basic loop quite long - go for six inches at first. You will use the loop wires for your flower stem when you're done.

Now comes the fun part. Feed in enough beads from the spool until they are lined up against the "basic" row beads above the loop. Fit the new beads upwards along the first set of beads so the new beads fit in very snugly, and wrap the spool wire straight around the wire just above the "basic row." Now turn the piece upside down. Repeat this feeding beads, tightly fitting in and wrapping process until you have seven rows as you count from side to side across the front of the piece. Be sure you finish the last row at the bottom of the piece, where the loop is. Wrap two or three times to finish the last row.

Wrap some empty spool wire down the wires of the loop. Cut open the bottom of the loop, and cut off the spool wire at the bottom. Now, cut off all but a little "nib" at the top of the piece, where that extra wire is. Bend the "nib" over towards the back of the piece, where you wrapped the spool wire. There! You've made a petal!

Make four more petals just like this.

Then repeat the process with the green wire and beads. This is a leaf.

You'll need a center for the flower. Make it in green. Move twenty beads to within two inches of the end of the wire. Make a very tight self-loop with these beads. Pinch the loop tight so it stands up straight. Move along the spool wire just a bit and make another loop. Make about ten of these self-loops on the same length of wire. Cut the wire from the spool. Bunch these loops together and twist the wires.

Now, take each piece and tape the stems. Here's how: Stretch a length of tape until it turns light green. Wrap the end around the top of the stemwires. Turn it diagonally down the stem and turn the piece so that the wires are completely covered all the way down. Keep stretching the tape. Tear it off at the bottom of the wires.

When all the pieces are taped, you can assemble them. Take one petal and start the tape wrapping straight around the stem just under the beading. After 1 1/2 wraps, add the center in front of the petal and wrap another 1 1/2 times. Add the second petal in the same fashion. Repeat this until all the petals are joined. Now turn the tape diagonally down the stems and wrap down about an inch. Now add in the leaf. Continue wrapping down to the bottom of the wires, and tear if off. Shape all the parts like a real flower.

You've made a French bead flower! Good work!

I have just finished restoring four vintage French bead flower arrangements. To say the least, it was quite a challenge!

The owner, my client, is not sure exactly when these items were first constructed. They belonged to her late mother. I would estimate they were made in the 1950's or 1960's. Although obviously made with love and care, the artist had taken a few short cuts that made my job a bit tougher. For example, in the quest for narrow stems, most petal wires had been cut far too short. In some cases, one petal on a flower had long enough wires, but all the other petals on the flower were held together only by their eighth-inch stemwires and lacing wires.

These arrangements had been cleaned many times over the years by immersion. Since they were made with the all-steel wire available at the time, this cleaning method had created quite a few problems. The water that stayed inside the beads after had rusted most of the wires. Top basic wires had gone distractingy black. The thick lacing wires had also gone black. Since many times these wires went around the outside of the flower, this was particularly unsightly. Many wires had been so badly rusted that flower heads came right off in my hands as I cleaned them. Some leaves had become unsalvageable and had to be discarded. Finally, the wet rust had spread down over the silk wrapping on many stems, discoloring them badly.

My first step was to carefully clean all the flowers and leaves with baby wipes that contained no aloe or conditioners. Then I discarded all the old lacing wires and re-laced with color-matched 32-gauge wire. For the bluebells and other flowers where both the outside and inside were very visible, I invented my own lacing technique so as to make the lacing as discreet as possible. I repaired and reattached flower heads to new stems. Re-wrapping stems with floss on all the arrangements was a project in itself, especially on complicated sprigs and sprays. Using off-white nail polish, I covered blackened top basic wires on the white and yellow tulips.

Potting brought a few more surprises. Plastic bags had been used as container liners in two arrangements. Two of the pieces had been "redone" some years earlier by a florist, and one arrangement had been repotted in florist's styrofoam. Another piece presented a peculiar potting combination of clay and styrofoam. I replaced all the foam with fresh clay, and gave all the pieces new green moss. I gave everything one more cleaning with wipes, and repotting and rearranging brought out the original beauty of the pieces.

When my client first found the crushed and sadly dilapidated arrangements in her mother's belongings, they were so dusty that the white tulips and daisies looked brown. Leaves and stems were twisted and bent, petals were falling off, and dirty clay and styrofoam were visible through scanty, dried-out moss. When she first brought the pieces to my home, my client couldn't imagine what had originally attracted her mother to these things, but something told her they deserved a second chance. Now that they are back to their original beauty, she is absolutely delighted with them. She says she will enjoy them for many, many years.

Believe me, the way to clean your French bead flowers is NOT to dunk them. I used to think this was a good way to do it, but after restoring those four arrangements, I know it's just not a good idea. The delicate wires rust, flower heads will fall off, and silk wrappings will get rust flow. Not pretty.

So what do you do? Very simple. Dust your flowers vigorously with a regular feather duster. The feathers won't disarrange the flowers, and they'll get really clean very fast. If the dirt is more stubborn, then do this: Take a plain baby wipe in your hand. Roll the rows of beads in your baby-wipe-covered fingers. You'll be amazed how clean they get! Just be careful with the silk wrapped stems - they can fray when they get damp even from the wipes.