French Beaded Flowers,

Or, the folk woman's approach to wire-wrapping

Though I don't subscribe to the theory that words absolutely control one's thinking, they certainly influence it. `Wire-wrapping', as a medium, generally refers to the technique of using square and round wires, with cabochons or crystals, that became popular, oh, I don't know, perhaps the 70s or so. The square wires are often twisted for visual sparkle, and most of the guys I saw doing it back when I was on the art fair circuit were just that---men. Oddly enough its greatest practitioner, or at least the person who inspired me, was Mary Lee Hu, whose early work using inexpensive wire and beads (garnets) are still my favorites.

French beaded flowers, on the other hand, are mostly made by women. (And, for the record, its most inspirational [known-by-name] artist is a man, Mario Rivola.) Unlike `wire-wrapping' I never saw french beaded flowers at art fairs. The craft was evidently nearly lost, at least in this country, until one woman, [?] Nathanson, revived it. We're evidently on the second wave of revivals now.

But both are wire techniques, and I've been struggling, off and on, to incorporate them in my work since at least the early 2000s. (I'm a slow learner). So here are some pieces I've made using this technique.

File created 8apr08.

In which I make a very large and complicated flower, to use up a lot of beads & get in some practice. Worked like a charm. Originally posted 9may08.

 

This post explores some technical issues in traditional french-beaded flower making. Originally posted 8may08.

 

2nd in the series of peach french-beaded flowers, this time featuring a pea flowers. Originally posted 23apr08.

 

2 peach french-beaded flowers, more or less in the traditional technique. Originally posted 17apr08.

 

Series of 4 wire and bead leaves using the french-beaded technique as a starting point. Originally posted 8apr08.

 

Hodgepodge experimental fantasy flower, originally posted 5apr08.

 

Experiment attempting to mix beads and wire using french beaded flower techniques as a basis. Originally posted 06apr08.

 

Oak style leaf made with a variant of the frenched beaded flower technique. Originally posted 4apr08