Thursday, December 29, 2011

Beaded Flowers

Back in July, when we were in Anacortes, WA (for a wedding), my husband and I wandered through some antique malls. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, just looking.

Lo and behold, I saw this meager bunch of beaded flowers, locked in a case, for $39.95. Hey! We used to make beaded flowers! When we were in high school, my sisters and I spent afternoons stringing and twisting and trying to out-do one another's creations.

I took this picture, and sent it to the girls, never expecting what would follow. "Hey! Are you interested in the beaded flowers?" Say what? I loved those things. I was addicted to those things. I think that the only reason I stopped making them was because I'd made every flower in the book...and I'd gone off to college.

A few weeks before Christmas, this bedraggled bunch of posies arrived on my doorstep. They are bent and dusty, but nothing that a little TLC won't work wonders for.

I washed and dismantled one before Christmas. Last night I cut a new stem, brought out the new florist tape, and reassembled. Isn't she pretty?

Once I saw the results, I was hooked. Three (or four?) more flowers have been dismantled and washed. Today I will reassemble them. I have to do them in small groups, as I would never remember which leaves belong to which flowers.

And you thought my attraction to beads was something new. Fooled you!! :) hahahaha!!

4 comments:

Quiltedtime said...

I used to make those, too! Had forgotten all about it since I had given them all away as gifts. Yes, that "bead blood" runs deep.

Barbara Sindlinger said...

Those are very pretty.

Del said...

Where did the bedraggled flowers come from? Your sisters? Your friends?
And do you take them completely apart? Remove the wires and then restring on new wires? I have a beaded parrot that belonged to my mother, it must be a hundred years old, but I never thought of 'restringing' it. Should I?
Inquiring minds ....and all that. Del

pb said...

I used to make beaded flowers and also dyed old nylons and stretch them over pulled apart copper screening and make bouquets out of them. When the wires are pulled out of the copper screening it has a ripple effect that made the petals rippley. Oh for the days of my youth.