French beaded rosebud flower earrings tutorial

It’s Valentine’s day soon and today, I will show you how to make French beaded rosebud earrings. The techniques I am using for these earrings include French beading and traditional jewelry wire wrapping techniques. It is an intermediate project as you do need to know the basics of French beading. To learn the pre-requisite techniques needed, here are some links below.

French beading Pre-requisite Techniques:

Skill Level: Intermediate

Materials:

6 grams 11/0 petal color beads
5 grams 11/0 green beads
3.7 feet 26 gauge silver copper-core wire
3.9 feet 24 gauge green copper-core wire
pair of Marquise earwires (any long earwires like Marquise or kidney ear wires will look lovely) – using regular fish hook earwires will make it look stubby)

At the time of this post (1/19/2021), the ear wires that I purchased at the link above is sold out. A quick search on Etsy shows many offerings at reasonable prices!

Tools:

Wire cutters
Chain nose pliers
Round nose pliers
Measuring tape

These are basic written instructions to accompany the video for your reference.

Rosebud:

On a 22-inch (55 cm) length of 26-gauge wire, string on 10 inches (25.4 cm) of petal color beads.
Leave a 2 inch (5 cm) tail and make three 5-bead CWL.
Gather the three petals in the center and wrap the working-wire around the tail wire.
Make five 7-bead CWL.
Remove any excess beads. Wrap the petals around the inner petals and wrap the working-wire around the tail wire.
String on green beads and make five 8-bead CL.
Wrap the the loops around the tail wire cut the working-wire at the base. Tuck the wire bit in.
Put on a red bead onto the tail wire and make a wrapped loop.

Leaves:

String on approximately 11 inches (27 cm) of green beads onto a spool of 24 gauge green wire.
Make a basic frame with 3 beads on the basic row and 3 beads onto basic loop. Make the top basic wire to be 2.5 inches (6.3 cm) and the twisted wire/loop to be 2 inches (5 cm).
Make 9 rows with pointed top and rounded bottom for the first leaf.
Move the beads onto one side of the loop. Cut the loop so that the wire with the beads is longer leaving the other wire to be about 1.5 inch (3.8 cm).
Make a new twisted wire and make the 2nd leaf to be 7 rows with pointed top and rounded bottom.
Wrap the working-wire around the base of the leaf twice. Cut and tuck the wire.
String beads onto the top basic wire of the first leaf and bend it along the back of the leaf. Wrap the wire around the base. Cut the excess wire off and tuck.
String beads onto the top basic wire of the second leaf and bend it along the back of the leaf. Wrap the wire around the tail wire and coil around it twice. Cut the wire and tuck.
String on a bead onto the tail wire and make a wrapped loop.