Description
This French beaded carnation pattern is simple to follow. I have assumed knowledge of the basic beading techniques you will use. So, if you need a refresher, please make sure you also download my free technique tutorials to help you.
Materials
The list of materials for the French beaded carnation is fairly standard for any French beading project. I do stock all these materials in my beading supplies. So, if you are having trouble sourcing anything, I should have it available for you.
- Size 11 seed beads – I use Matsuno brand for French beading
- 24ga (0.5mm) wire
- Floral stem tape
- 20ga wire for stiffening your stems
- Embroidery Silk
I suggest you use a bead spinner for this project. Again, if you are new to French beading and don’t have one, I have them available here. Apart from that, you simply need wire cutters.
Techniques
The French beaded Carnation uses two techniques. The first is the single loops. So, if you need a refresher of that, please download my technique sheet covering all the loop techniques.
Then, you will also use the ‘Donut Basic’. I cover this technique in my other free French beading techniques tutorial for ‘Basic Techniques.’
Remember, you can just check the products menu for all my free technique tutorials.
You might also be interested in my ebook, ‘Bead Flowers and Wedding Bouquets‘. This demonstrates all the techniques on video. So, you get to watch me and really see how the French beading works.
Neither of the these techniques are difficult. So, I suggest anyone could make this flower. I have marked it as intermediate simply because the pattern assumes you have done some French beading before.
Background to the French Beaded Carnation
A while back, I wrote an article about designing French beaded flowers. I was talking about the idea that there are basically two schools of thought. Those who like to create botanically accurate flowers, and those who are not so concerned with this.
I do not wish to suggest that either school of thought is ‘right’. Both have merits, as you can read in my article. So, I’m just mentioning this as it came to mind when I began designing my Carnation.
Real carnations have a lot of petals. They are very delicate and they create a gorgeous mass of ‘frills’ and colour. I soon discovered that trying to make petals exactly identical to the real thing didn’t work so well.
Beaded petals are necessarily a little bulkier. So, the effect just didn’t look the same when I assembled these ‘realistic’ petals. Instead, I had to think about the finished effect of a carnation and use a technique to replicate that effect.
So, no, my carnations are not ‘botanically accurate’, but I do hope they look like carnations! If you don’t think so, then perhaps this is just a great fantasy flower!
You can have fun trying some different colour combinations. Then arrange all your blooms in a vase of your choice and they will last forever.
