How to work with flower-shaped beads

Erika Sandor August 1, 2022 Tutorials & Techniques8 Comments

Flowers provide an endless source of inspiration!

And not only for us, beaders, when we create necklaces or earrings that resemble shapes from the nature, but for beadmakers, too. Besides developing their own innovations, a few years ago a multi-generational Czech family manufactory revived many of the historical bead shapes created decades ago. Lilies, tulips, bud beads were popular in the past, and now they are finally here again.

We started to make friends with them during the recent Tulip Mania Theme of the Beadingschool Academy, but still more and more designs are emerging – fuelled also by the recent International Beading Week (organised by the Beadworker’s Guild), with wildflowers being its source of inspiration in 2022.

I’m pretty much in love with the flower-shaped beads, with Lily Flowers being my favourites. I used them in the Toscana bracelet that was my contribution to the International Beading Week (you can still download it as a gift), and at the moment I’m working on a new design with it: a bead embroidered jewel. I haven’t decided yet if its going to be a statement ring or a brooch and pendant in one. I will show it to you (and share the video tutorial on the Beadingschool Youtube channel) as soon as it’s finished.

Despite all the spontaneous positive feelings that are emerging when I see the flower beads, I have to admit that they are not the easiest ones to use in our beadwork.
Or, at least, not the easiest ones until we know what to keep in mind when working with them.

These are the flower-shaped beads that I have been working with so far.
All of them are pressed glass beads from the Czech Crystal Valley, ranging from 8×9 mm with the Rose Petals until 11×16 mm with the Tulip beads.

Today, I bring you a theoretical article

listing different flower-shaped beads, and offering you solutions and sharing my experience. Please note, that this is a general article, and this is not a specific tutorial, but a bunch of tips, thing to think about, and general advice that you can apply when you are working on your own designs with flower-shaped beads.

Of course, you can also try your hands with the jewels that I’m going to show you as examples, as there are tutorials available for all of them in the Beadingschool Bead Shop.

Besides these, there are flower-shaped beads that are not problematic to fix, for example the Rosetta cabochon, since it has two holes running parallel with each other, and the Flower Cups with their single hole in the middle, that can be used as a bead cap.

So, what’s the problem and when does it happen?

Most of the flower-shaped beads are of a flat shape, with only one hole running through them. While multi-hole beads can be stabilised easily, since they can be fixed at multiple points, flat beads with only one hole continue turning around, sometimes showing the front or back, sometimes showing the side of the bead, what is not what you’d like to see.

This is a super good question by the way (asked by Terry after finishing the Tulip Mania Theme), and at the same time, one of the hardest to answer, as there is no one general solution. You need to fix the beads in a different way in every motif that you make, depending on the surrounding beads. Don’t hesitate to share your own experience in a comment! I’m looking forward to read them all 🙂

Before you start thinking of a solution,

it’s important to determine correctly that what’s the problem that you need to solve. The question that you have to answer is: which way would the beads move if you didn’t stabilise them.

To give you an example to understand this better: compare a Rose Petal and the Lily Flower bead!
Both of the beads are flat, they have one hole, and so, they both need stabilising. However, there is one significant difference: while the hole of the Rose Petal is running from front to back, the hole of the Lily Flower is drilled from top to bottom. Imagine the hole as the axis, around which the bead would turn if it was left loose!

While the Rose Petal can’t move to the front and back, it needs the space around it reduced to the minimum to make sure that it can’t ‘wiggle’ from left and right and all around any more. On the other hand, the Lily Flower doesn’t need beads around it, but it needs something behind, to stop it from turning around its center line.

Once you determined the problem, you can start looking into a solution. I will list four different ways, but I’m sure there are many more!

1. BEAD EMBROIDERY.

I start with bead embroidery, even if we haven’t been doing lots of embroidery recently, as this is, in my opinion, the easiest way to stabilise these kinds of beads. The fabric gives support, so you don’t have to do anything unusual. You can sew down the beads to the fabric, and it doesn’t matter that there is only one hole running through them. You can further decorate the motif by adding seed beads or even some bigger ones around the beads in question.

In case of Rose Petals (and other beads with the hole running front to back) embroidery doesn’t solve the problem, you absolutely need to add beads around them in case of beadweaving and embroidery, too. Lily Flowers, Tulip Buds, Tulip beads don’t need anything extra, it’s enough to simply sew them down to the fabric.

TIP: If you’d like to build up your bead embroidery skills, check out my article about the basic tools that you need, and make sure to watch my video tutorials on Youtube!

2. CREATING A ‘NEST’

This is the fastest way of adding a bit of stability, but at the same time, it’s also the one that’s a little bit less secure, as the beads are not creating a full line/net under the bead, they only strengthen one specific point. I recommend using this with Lily Flowers and Tulip Buds, but not with the heavier and thicker Tulip beads.
I fixed the Tulip Buds in my Lilyrosa earrings this way. At the place where the Tulip Bud bead is meeting the rest of the motif, I added a picot made of some Miyuki beads, supporting the Tulip Bud from the back. It looks as if the Tulip Bud was sitting in a little ‘chair’ – nothing is visible from the front, but there are extra beads added on the back side. During my test of shaking the earring heavily the beads turned around, however, I don’t think that it comes to this level of movement, unless you’re wearing them for head-banging during a frenetic heavy metal concert.

3. RUNNING LINES BEHIND THE BEADS

A lot more secure way of stabilising the beads, however, it’s also trickier to create, as we need to keep the securing lines invisible – or make them part of the design, so it doesn’t matter if they can be seen from the front. Creating securing lines means that you connect two beads that are next to (or close) to the flower bead. It can be done with a single bugle bead, a Twist bead, or a bunch of 15/0 seed beads, for example.

This is what I did in the Toscana bracelet!

How do you know if you need one or two ‘security lines?’

If the ‘security line’ creates a 90 angle with the hole of the flower bead to be secured, then one security line is enough. If the angle is different, then you’ll need at least two security lines.

4. CREATING A FULL BED OF BEADS

By this, I mean a structure similar to the back sides of cabochons covered with Peyote completely, when we’d like to make sure that they won’t get damaged when wearing. Of course, it’s not that easy, as a circular shaped ‘bed’ usually wouldn’t work, and you need to adjust the shape and the size of the layer of beads on the back to the shape and the size of the bead that you’d like to stabilise.

This is how Ruxandra Puscas – Ruxi fixed the Tulip Bud beads in her popular Tulip Eye earrings.

List of tutorials with flower-shaped beads

Lilyrosa (with Tulip Bud)
Bleu Aimable (with 8×9 mm Rose Petal)
Pink Diamond (with Tulip Beads
Toscana (with Lily Flowers)
Tulip Eye by Ruxandra Puscas (with Tulip Bud

List of flower shaped beads mentioned in the article, and more

Have you ever tried working with flower-shaped beads?
Share your experience in a comment!

Comments

Mirjam says

August 3, 2022 at 8:06 pm

Thank you for sharing. I really love all flower shaped beads. To support larger beads with a bed of beads or bugles is a great idea.

Reply
- Erika Sandor says
  
  August 9, 2022 at 2:53 pm
  
  Thank you, Mirjam, I’m happy that you find this useful 🙂
  
  Reply
Elena Lazovik says

August 2, 2022 at 1:19 pm

Thank you so much for such a diligent overview of all different options to stabilize the position of the beads! It is a great guideline for all big enough beads with only 1 hole through them! I really appreciate this information! Next piece I will make – I will check them on embroidery piece… Now I have a great collection of flower beads, thanks to Beadingschool.
I would like only to add my 5 cents from practicing with the Lily beads – it seemed to me that making triangle (support from 3 sides) was the optimal construction to keep them in place. May be, it could be useful for the others…

Reply
- Erika Sandor says
  
  August 2, 2022 at 2:05 pm
  
  Elena, thank you so much for sharing your experience! It is indeed very valuable to know. And I’m super curious to see your embroidery with the flowers – your pieces are always beautiful and inspiring beyond imagination!
  
  Reply
- Terry says
  
  August 4, 2022 at 1:48 am
  
  Thank you so much Erika for this very informative answer to my question. I love that even though we are talking about the flower shapes here that this can be applied to many beads that are drilled from top to bottom with only one hole. I will be trying all of these techniques and hope to come up with some of my own to share when I do.
  
  Reply
  - Erika Sandor says
    
    August 9, 2022 at 2:53 pm
    
    It was my pleasure, Terry! I’m super happy that you find this useful, and can’t wait to see your creations 🙂
    
    Reply
Ariane says

August 2, 2022 at 7:26 am

I found that for some reason at least the Lilyflower beads won’t turn that much if there is a RAW unit beneath it. Stability is like the ‘nest’. For the rosepetals I loved incorporating them in CRAW. Stability is very high. And always an option of course -> use a filigree! 😀

Reply
- Erika Sandor says
  
  August 2, 2022 at 9:27 am
  
  Hehe, so true with the filigree – I think it’s the magic word for 80% of our problems in the beading world 😀
  Thank you so much for the tips with RAW and CRAW!
  
  Reply