French beaded flowers: beaded pumpkin

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French beaded flowers project: pumpkin

In today’s French beaded flowers project, we’ll learn how to make bead and wire pumpkins. The weather is changing and it’s flannel and pumpkin spice season. Initially, I wanted to make some beaded pumpkin earrings but as I was playing around, I decided to go with the mini French beaded pumpkin. I designed this using the Continuous Split Basic technique. It’s a technique I first introduced on my youtube channel and then also in my book. This French beading technique allows you to have the look of the basic frame units but on one continuous wire.

This pattern took awhile to develop and it’s quite nitpicky because you need to have absolutely no space in between each unit. If you were making a normal petal using the continuous techniques, some space in between petals are not unusual. But this pattern works best if there are no spaces.

I posted photos of the pumpkins on my facebook page and my friends wanted to buy them. I don’t sell my finished work anymore but did offer them the samples because I made so many. They are addictive and fun to make!

Here are the materials needed for this French beaded flowers technique: pumpkin project:

  • 6 grams of seed beads ( I used various oranges and also made a teal pumpkin for food allergy awareness)
  • 24 gauge copper-core wire (I used bare-copper and blue)

Tools:

  • Wire Cutter
  • Pliers

 

French beaded pumpkin, French beading, French beaded flowers French beaded pumpkin, French beading, French beaded flowers

Some more tips for making a successful beaded pumpkin:

Tip Number 1: Keep the rows tight. So hold onto the unit securely with your fingers as you’re wrapping.

Tip Number 2: Make sure the twisted wire for all the subsequent units are exactly the same length. You can measure the first unit. But for this pumpkin, I moved the twisted wire next to the first unit to compare lengths. And sometimes even with careful measuring, your lengths can still be off.

Tip number 3: Take it apart if it’s off after you make the subsequent units. It’s still better than making all the units and then your pumpkin won’t come together as it should.

Tip number 4: Gentle shaping. You can gently move the outer shows of the units so that it fills in more of the space in between.