Description
About the Beaded Cherry Blossom Pattern
I created my beaded cherry blossom pattern back in 2005, fairly early in my French beading career. At that time I had no thought of writing up tutorials, although I did make copious hand-written notes as I designed. This was to allow me to re-make my designs. The good (or bad) news is that this means I have absolutely loads of designs that just need tutorials! So, when I can find the time, I am gradually working my way through them.
I was prompted to write the beaded cherry blossom pattern up because a student of mine loves all things Japanese. She brought along some beads that she had already chosen to make cherry blossom and we were talking about it when I remembered this pattern.
I know I’m not alone in procrastinating, getting distracted and generally being overtaken by life. So, I confess I haven’t made a lot of progress through my backlog of French beading patterns so far. But this gave me an excuse to focus on one pattern and prioritise writing the tutorial.
Finally…here I give you my beaded cherry blossom pattern! More importantly, the lady who takes regular classes with me will, I hope, be pleased to be able to make her own French beaded cherry blossom very soon. I’m looking forward to seeing how she adapts the colouring and what she does with her cherry blossom branches, so you may get to see some photos.
Materials and Techniques
The beaded cherry blossom pattern uses two very simple techniques: the four row crossover and the double loop. The pattern assumes that you already know how to do these techniques. However, if you are struggling, you might be interested to know that my ebook, ‘Bead Flowers and Wedding Bouquets‘ includes video demonstrations of the techniques. This is a huge help when you are learning.
This project doesn’t require too many beads. You have the choice of using a bead spinner or stringing them by hand. So, it’s not a bad place to start if you haven’t done any French beading before.
You can buy the seed beads, wire and other French beading supplies from me at really good prices. Just check out the beading supplies section. You want Matsuno seed beads, coloured copped craft wire and French beading supplies.
