I will be teaching a little class in the "Learn how to make French Beaded Flowers" Facebook group in May. This is a group that Fen Li and I run to help others learn the art of French Beaded Flowers, and so others who enjoy the art can come together to share their work, ask…
Lauren Harpster, owner of Bead & Blossom, is passionate about French Beaded Flowers. Specializing in meticulous, experimental techniques, she spreads the art through her books and free beginner course. French Beading, an age-old art, combines beadwork, wire wrapping, and sculpture to create stunning flowers. The craft has evolved through history, with artists constantly innovating.
I've played around a little with turning my French Beaded Flowers into self-standing sculptures as well. These are a little tricky, since they have to be balanced and supported well enough by the base. Cattelya Orchid This one was so much fun to make! I was practicing an advanced ruffling technique, and decided last-minute to…
French Beading Tutorials I have divided the French Beading Techniques into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced categories based on the knowledge and experience required to work with them. Techniques taught in the higher categories assume you are already comfortable with the techniques in the previous categories. >> Download a PDF Glossary of French Beading Terms here.…
I finally finished my November project! If you remember from my last post I was working on an arrangement of French Beaded Paperwhites. I actually grew some paperwhites to study them. These flowers are traditionally grown indoors around the holidays, so it was easy to find some bulbs at a local nursery. After reading several sources…
Learn the art of French Beaded Flowers with free tutorials by designer Lauren Harpster.
I'm dropping by today to announce the official launch of my Learn French Beading: Beginner Course video series! If you missed my last blog post, please go back and read that to see all the details of what this course is and what it entails. The first video, which teaches how to string seed beads…
I have made so many flowers for orders or as pattern displays over the years. Here is a collection of my very favorites. Some of these patterns have been published, and others have not... yet! If you click on the pictures of the flowers that say "pattern published" in the caption, it will take you to…
So I've been on maternity leave for a while, but I'm still beading up a storm. You can tell because my studio looks like a tornado hit it. Since I've had all this free time to make whatever I want, I sat down and made a list of all the new flower designs I wanted…
This piece, which I call "Dahlia Harvest" was made as a custom order for a gentleman who wanted a special and meaningful gift for his wife. She has a garden full of all sorts of dahlias that she harvests in a big bucket. He sent me an image of one of her harvests in her…
My Christmas Collection is a group of patterns and designs included in the first volume of my "French Beading Patterns" series. The book was published in December 2017. It is available to purchase from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it, Amazon.de, Amazon.es, and Amazon.jp. You can also purchase a signed copy or the digital book from…
French beading technique tutorial for Top Wire Extensions and Bottom Wire Extensions by Lauren Harpster from Bead and Blossom.
If you're learning French beading or improving your skills, these French beading videos are all essential viewing for you. So, watch them now!
"Immortelle" is a French word that means "everlasting." In the world of French Beaded Flowers this term refers to the beaded Mourning Wreaths - or Couronnes de Mortuaire - that were popular in Europe during the late 1800's to the early 1900's. These incredible creations were large beaded flower displays that were usually used as…
Bear with me, you guys, this is a long post with a lot of information. We're going to take a look at the complex issue of shading patterns in French Beading. I'm only going to cover the basics here. We'll go further into depth on different types of shading patterns later. One question I've gotten…
French Beaded Flower tutorial - Loop-Back technique lesson by Lauren Harpster.
Beginner Course Lesson Six: Lacing Read the PDF shown in the window below. You can download a copy of the PDF using the “Print” or “Download” buttons in the top corner of the PDF window. Watch the video for a demonstration. Or, you can download a single PDF with all of the Beginner Course Technique…
Today is a good day, because I finally get to update my blog. Forgive me, I'm actually going to publish two blog posts today, since I'm trying to catch up. For this post I thought it would be fun to share with you all the pictures I took during a study on some peach blossom…
Antique Venetian Frame Difficulty Rating: Advanced Pre-requisite Techniques: Basic FrameLacing Both of these techniques are taught in my free Beginner Course. We had a discussion in a beaded flower Facebook group about an uncommon French Beading Technique and how it was done. A friend of mine was able to find a leaf made using this…
Unit Support Wires Some flowers are just huge. They have large, long, or otherwise heavy petals or leaves that are just too heavy for the usual copper core wires to support. I don't know about you, but I don't like floppy petals or leaves, so I am going to teach you about Unit Support Wires, also…
