I know what I was thinking, when I created this page (or at least, thought of creating this page^[1] ): that french beaded techniques were woefully documented on the web. I mean, you can find basic tuts, now, on how to do kumi, or glass beadmaking, or embroidery, but I couldn't find online free howtos on even how to do a basic loop, or explain what a frame was, or anything. —So I figured, some day, I'd document the basics.

I mean, this stuff is simple, right? String beads on a wire, using a beadspinner if they're not already prestrung, then wind ’em round and round, or form the wires into loops.

That's it.

That's the entire basis of the technique, and though it can get quite involved, the initial projects are not particularly difficult to understand or do. So, um, why did it take me three tries to get this stuff down...? I don't recall, precisely, my first real attempts at this technique, but I do have a vivid memory of giving it another go-round with the purchase of Arlene Baker's book in 02, when she came & lectured to the GLBG. I have a 1st edition of Helen McCall's 1993 French Beaded Flowers I: A guide for beginners, which had some (to me) rather uninspiring projects, that I almost certainly picked up at a GLBG bazaar. This book—really a high class stapled pamphlet, with admittedly good photography, surprisingly high production values and quite decent instructions is likely my first encounter with documentation of the technique.

Which just goes to show, I generally need both technique and a good gallery^[2] to see the possibilities, which doesn't exactly argue for the quality of my imagination. In any event, as the pages here show, it was at least as late as 2006 before I had any real understanding, and stuff finally started taking off in 08. That's a looooong time to learn something seemingly so simple. One other comment: see that little white petal/leaf thingie just to the right of the beadspinner, in the lower left of the image? It's made with floral wire. Floral wire rusts, so it's denigrated by many modern french-beaded flower-makers, but lemme tell you, it is much, much stiffer than the copper wire. —Just sayin’.

Okay. Here, without further ado, is my pitiful collection of french-beaded flower howto pages.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.

Sylvus Tarn