Description

French beaded flowers: Dandelion pattern PDF Level: Advanced

Here is an anticipated French beaded flowers pattern for you! Most people view dandelions as pesky weeds but they are gorgeous, resilient, and useful flowers. Each part of the plant is edible and medicinal. Dandelions are most well known for their yellow flowers but they also come in white, a variation from Japan, and pink lemonade, a variation from central Asia.

The dandelion pattern uses a combination of beginner to advanced techniques. The flower heads all use continuous fringe techniques, which is very beginner friendly.

The leaves, on the other hand, uses a combination of the basic frame, spokes, lacing and adding beads onto the bottom wire. You do need experience with these techniques. At first glance the leaves look intimidating, but they really don’t take that long to make. Each leaf can be done in about 1 to 2 hours.

This is an advanced project and does not teach the techniques. Follow the links below to learn the basics via free pdfs and videos:

French beaded flowers techniques:

• Basic Frame
• Lacing
• Continuous Fringe
• Spokes

What you will get in this PDF download:

• 16 page PDF with 68 step-by-step instructions
• BONUS: Access to video demos that includes Sepals A & B, Petals, Seeded Flower Petals, Assembly of flower, Leaves, and Assembly –  The videos were made for parts that I think may be a bit more challenging or just newer methods that you may not have seen in my tutorials before. This is not a full video class – over 1 hour 40 mins of video instruction
• Automatic download after purchase – if you didn’t download right away, you can login and download at a later time if you have an account or create an account at checkout

Materials for making this French beaded flowers pattern:

• 30 grams 11/0 matte yellow seed beads seed beads- Yellow Color A
• 12 grams 11/0 opaque light yellow seed beads – Yellow Color B
•  14 grams 11/0 transparent orange seed beads
• 120 grams 11/0 transparent green beads – Green Color A
• 25 grams 11/0 matte green seed beads – Green Color B
• 15 grams 11/0 transparent brown seed beads
•  20 grams 11/0 clear seed beads
•  28 gauge gold copper-core wire
•  28 gauge white copper-core wire
•  28 gauge green copper-core wire
•  30 gauge green copper-core wire
•  22 gauge green copper-core wire
•  6 to 8 lengths of 16 gauge galvanized steel stem wire – 10 to 12 inches (25.4 to 30.4 cm)
•  Floral tape
•  1 to 2 skeins of embroidery floss

Video:

• Petals A ( 3:30 mins)
• Sepals B (5:21 mins)
• Seeded Petals (11:13 mins)
• Budding Flower Assembly (10:18 mins)
• Dandelion Leaf Part A (28:10)
• Dandelion Leaf Part 2 (36:23 mins)
• Assembly (10:57 mins)

Sample Video

Beads

I used size 11/0 seed beads for this project. You’re welcome to use color choices of your own but if you like my color schemes, below are the specific beads I used:

• 11/0 Matsuno Dynamite Transluscent Matte Yellow – Yellow Color A
•  11/0 Matsuno Dynamite ceylon pastel cream – Yellow Color B
•  11/0 Venetian vintage transparent orange
•  11/0 Venetian vintage clear
•  11/0 Venetian vintage transparent green – Green Color A
•  11/0 Miyuki Matte lime green – Green Color B – I used a discontinued Matsuno bead and this Miyuki is the closest in color.
•  11/0 Matsuno Dynamite transparent rainbow root beer

I chose to use two different green finishes in the same shade. At first glance, it’s not noticeable, but the free-form shading of the different finishes gives the leaf dimension and looks like the light is hitting it a certain way.

I used vintage Venetian beads for many of the fringe shading. While the beads are mostly consistent, there may be some an irregular bead here and there. Some of the fringes varying slightly in height is not an issue in the pattern.

Wire:

Petals/Sepals: These units are made with 28 gauge wire as it can pass through the beads twice. In a pinch, you can also use 30 gauge wire, however, the units can be more flimsy.

Leaves: Use only 22 gauge wire for the leaves. Do not use 24 gauge wire as it won’t be strong enough to hold the leaf up. Even with 22 gauge, the stems need to be reinforced in order for the leaves to stay up.

Notes on this beaded dandelion pattern:

Leaves: The leaves pattern uses shading that will call for long lengths of cut wire. If you’re not comfortable using such a long length of wire, you can make it all in one color instead.

Due to the bottom wires being used to add additional beads, adding additional wires on the bottom wires is not possible. Alternatively, additional wires can be added onto the top basic wire if you run out of wire.

Assembly: Due to the number of units that need to be inserted into each other and tail wires repositioned, it can be a challenge to assemble as we normally would by inserting the units into each other. Instead, the majority of the petal and sepals units will be wrapped around the stems during assembly and the tail wires repositioned after it’s been attached. The units are more secure on the stem and reduce the usage of additional assembly wire.

Cut Wires: The majority of the units in this pattern use cut lengths of wire. Due to slight variations in sizes in different bead brands and personal beading styles, the length of cut wires can vary. Cut wire will not vary too much with making beaded fringes so it’s safe following the length recommendations in the pattern if you are using Japanese and Venetian beads. You may need slightly less cut wire if you are using Czech beads.

If you bead tightly, like I do, and use Japanese or Venetian beads, it’s safe to follow the wire length recommendations for the leaves. However, if you bead more loosely, you may want to add additional wire to the estimate. If you use Czech beads, follow the recommendation anyways and adjust accordingly for subsequent leaves.

More about this French beaded flowers pattern:

This French beaded flowers pattern/tutorial CANNOT be copied/reproduced or redistributed in any way. Pattern cannot be reproduced and sold for financial gain or used as a tutorial for a class. You may sell the item that is produced in this pattern with credit to “Fen Li, Bead Flora Studio” as the creator of the pattern in your online listings or on marketing materials if selling in person. Otherwise, this pattern is for
personal-use only.

You can find me on youtube, facebook, and instagram @beadflora
Feel free to email me with any questions. I’m always happy to help.