Description

French beaded flowers: beaded poinsettia – PDF tutorial

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Level: Advanced

This is an advanced pattern. This tutorial assumes that you know the basic French beading techniques and know how to read a pattern. You need experience in:

· Basic Frame
· Scallops
· Spokes
· Triple Split Basic
· Twisted Wire Fringe
· Fringes
· Continuous Loops
· Lacing

If you don’t have experience with making spokes, I will go over how to make them in this tutorial.

What you’ll get:

• 16 page PDF tutorial
• 82 photos with step-by-step instructions

About this beaded poinsettia project: 

Native to Mexico and Central America, Poinsettias are now synonymous with Christmas. Once wild, they are now cultivated for the holiday season.

This mammoth French beaded poinsettia was designed 4 years ago after my husband bought home a pot from Black Friday shopping. I was inspired to bead it. It measures approximately 10 inches (25.4 cm) in diameter. The entire flower takes about 30 to 40 hours to make. This is one of those “work in small bites” throughout the year type of projects. Each of the outer bracts and leaves take about 2 hours each to make.

The anatomy of Poinsettias are different than most flowers. The “Center” units are actually the flowers. What we think are the petals are actually called Bracts.

Beads: 

I use 11/0 seed beads for this pattern. I will list the specific brand and color I used below if you like my color
schemes but please don’t feel limited to what I’m using. While I did use mostly the same brand of beads for my units, you can mix brands. I’m usually more concerned about getting the best color match than using all the same brand of beads for a project.

· 11/0 Matsuno Dynamite transparent red (Color A) – (source Fire Mountain Gems)
· 11/0 Matsuno Dynamite transparent rainbow red (Color B) – (source Fire Mountain Gems)
· 11/0 Matsuno Dynamite transparent emerald green (Color C) – (source Fire Mountain Gems)
· 11/0 Matsuno Dynamite transparent rainbow emerald green (Color D) – – (source Fire Mountain Gems)
· 11/0 Preciosa Transparent Lime Green (Center Flowers) – (source Fire Mountain Gems)
· 11/0 Matusno Dynamite transparent inside color light yellow – (source Fire Mountain Gems)

In Colorway 2, I added
· 11/0 Matsuno Dynamite transparent rainbow cream soda – (source Fire Mountain Gems)

Wire

I use 11/0 seed beads for this pattern. I will list the specific brand and color I used below if you like my color
schemes but please don’t feel limited to what I’m using. While I did use mostly the same brand of beads for my units, you can mix brands. I’m usually more concerned about getting the best color match than using all the same brand of beads for a project.

· 11/0 Matsuno Dynamite transparent red (Color A) – (source Fire Mountain Gems)
· 11/0 Matsuno Dynamite transparent rainbow red (Color B) – (source Fire Mountain Gems)
· 11/0 Matsuno Dynamite transparent emerald green (Color C) – (source Fire Mountain Gems)
· 11/0 Matsuno Dynamite transparent rainbow emerald green (Color D) – – (source Fire Mountain Gems)
· 11/0 Preciosa Transparent Lime Green (Center Flowers) – (source Fire Mountain Gems)
· 11/0 Matusno Dynamite transparent inside color light yellow – (source Fire Mountain Gems)

In Colorway 2, I added
· 11/0 Matsuno Dynamite transparent rainbow cream soda – (source Fire Mountain Gems)

Bracts: Because of the size of this flower, we need to use 22 gauge wire for a sturdy flower. I understand that it can be harder for some to use a heavier gauge wire, I’ll go over some work-arounds in this tutorial. Bracts A to C can be made using 24 gauge wire. While it’s recommended to use 22 gauge wire for Bracts D to F, I will show some alternatives that can still maintain the structure of the units while still using 24 gauge wire.

Flower B Pistil: For the pistil, 28 gauge red wire is best. However, if you don’t have it, 30 gauge red wire will work fine too. It may be a little fiddly when wrapping the green beads around the base. You only need a small amount of the wire for the Pistils so if the budget doesn’t allow for it, 30 gauge wire works well.

Flowers A & B: The wire gauge best for the flowers are 26 gauge. If you have 26 gauge green wire, that will work well for Flower B. However, red wire works just as well for both Flowers A & B. Stick with the gauge recommended for these two units.