Earlier this week, a reader asked me how to make super-simple beaded leaves. Although there are lots of ways to stitch up beadwoven leaves, few of them are in the category of super-simple.
But, if you're willing to expand your creativity to wire -- rather than thread -- you can achieve some pretty quick and simple designs.
The precise technique you use for your wired leaves depends on the style of leaf you're looking for. The most common styles used for beaded flowers and foliage (a specialty area of beadwork in itself) are referred to as French and Victorian.
French wire leaves typically have long central wires, along which curved wires of strung beads are layered.
Victorian leaves use a form of single-needle or two-needle ladder stitch . . . sans the needles. You make them by stacking row after row of beads on top of one another, varying the numbers of beads along the way. To make this week's holly leaves, I used relatively narrow rows that taper at the ends.
Are you interested in more bead and wire leaf or flower tutorials? Let me know in a comment!
In the meantime, here are some great research resources on the Net:
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