Description
This free tutorial shows you the ‘basic’ technique in French beading. You will also learn three adaptations of this technique. I refer to all of these in my various French beading patterns, so if you need a refresher on the techniques, this is it! If you are just learning French beading then you may want to use my two ebooks, ‘Bead Flowers and Wedding Bouquets‘ and ‘Bead Flowers and Corsages‘ as these both show the techniques from these free tutorials as video demonstrations. It is much easier to learn French beading by watching someone practise the craft than simply trying to work from text and diagrams.
About the Free Tutorial
You will automatically download five separate free tutorial sheets here. Start with the ‘basic’ technique. This is used to make most flowers and leaves, so it is a critical technique to master. In the other four tutorials you will be learning how to develop this technique for more advanced projects. You can use the ‘donut’ variation to make calyxes for flowers, such as the lily. There may be instances when you need to give larger petals and leaves a little more stability. So for this, you will be ‘lacing’. You can also create shaping by using the ‘Split Stem Basic’ technique. Or the ‘Beehive Basic’ can be used for complete flowers for some projects.
You will see from the photos in the gallery above that the rose (main photo) uses only the ‘basic’ technique. For the Calla lily you will need to lace your petal to keep its structure. The cactus is made with the ‘beehive basic’ and the Cyclamen uses the ‘split stem basic’.
Once you have mastered the techniques from these free tutorials, you can use them to make the French beaded flowers – just check the patterns on this website for some great projects.
This was a very nice and well designed tutorial
I downloaded the Basic French Beading Techniques before attempting my first French Beaded Flower. It was invaluable in doing this first project. The tutorials were easy to understand and the diagrams extremely helpful. For me mist helpful fir the flower I made were the basic technique and lacing.