Although I only photographed this flower in July of 2018, it was almost certainly made a decade ago, in 2008, when I was on my last french-beaded flower kick: note the coloured wire wrapping the stem, a technique from that era:) As it happens, I really do[1] have liatris, which is a rather showy midwestern prairie native, growing in my garden, (though the purple of the plastic wire is closer to the actual flower) if not robustly—judging by where I've seen them do best while camping, they really prefer to be in the middle of a sunny field, which is just not something my part-shade garden can provide.
French beaded flower: lavender, in rocaille seed beads. I used my manual flash (mounted on light-stand) and my little lumix LX100, which is a tad big to be a ‘shirt-pocket’ camera, but on the upside, besides total manual mode, has a hotshoe. Yippee. 06jul2018.
This is a very easy pattern from ...somewhere (but evidently not Osterland):[2] two sets of continuous loops in graduated sizes. By wrapping the green and purple together, you get the effect of the blossoms sprouting between them. In addition to the colourful plastic coated wire, this piece features purple & green seed beads, and is, like all my rigid stems, made with an old mandrel.
[1]Well, I did in 2018 when I wrote this; the trees in the backyard got too big so it was long gone in 2023 when I finally dug this up. But I have two big trees coming out in 2024, so mebbe the citylawn will feature this beautiful native again...
[2]Most of my books [were at the time I wrote this] at the library display, so's I can't look it up... It appears to be in Dalene Kelly's French Beaded Flower: New Millennium Collection, p. 68. This book has a couple of interesting techniques, including this one, so it's worth picking up if you happen to come across it.
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
