French Beaded Flowers: making the leaves

I’ve started to make the leaves for my daisies the other day.  They were a little confusing at first as I’m not at all familiar with the techniques or terminology used in the art of french flowers.  The instructions I’m using don’t have very detailed pictures or photo’s and assume you know what you’re doing.  They do have instructions at the front, however, but again, I’m not familiar with the techniques.

Anyways…

you can even see the sepals that I’ve been making as well. {the green loops right under the daisy petals}

Once you get going it turns out to not be very hard at all.  I just wish the instructions had step-by-step photo’s or drawings, or better yet had someone to teach me in person.  The next step is to find some stiff wire to create the stem, wire all the components to it and then wrap it with florist tape. 🙂

this is my second attempt at lacing. Pretty awesome if I say so myself.

I also started lacing the leaves today.  The photo above is my second try.  I think I did pretty awesome.  My first try – not so much.  That leaf will probably end up in my bouquet as I want the Mom’s and the bridesmaids to have really nice flowers.  5 Mom flowers, and I am planning for 3 in the bridesmaids bouquets, but may go up to 5.  And probably something like 12 or 15 in mine.  I also have to make one to “throw away” to some lucky lady, and that one will probably be a 3 or 5 flower one.  So 26 french flower beaded daisies on the minimum, and 35 at the maximum.  So far my nails have been holding up, and I’m getting quite quick at making them. I should do a photo step-by-step, someone is bound to find it interesting. 🙂

EDIT: And by the search engine terms that have brought a bunch of people here I think a few how-to’s and really showing step-by-step how I’m making my flowers would be welcome.  It’s really not that hard to do.  It’s just tricky to be consistant with your wraps and spacing.  I’ve gotten to the point where I make them in the car while we’re travelling for groceries, etc. Living rurally means there’s quite a bit of driving on some days.