| In making French bead flowers, you use metal wire | | | | piece that has thirteen rows or more in the French |
| and glass beads. Did you know you can borrow a | | | | technique. |
| technique from sewing with needle and thread to help | | | | I recently restored four vintage bead flower |
| your flowers keep their beauty for many years? | | | | arrangements. One of the biggest problems with these |
| Learn it right here. | | | | flowers was that they had been laced poorly or not at |
| An essential step is to lace all the petals and leaves. It | | | | all. In the large white daisies, the artist had laced with |
| may seem like an unnecessary step, but it will make a | | | | heavy wire which had rusted and turned black over |
| big difference in how well your flowers hold up over | | | | the years. Rusted, thick black wire on white daisies is |
| the years. Without lacing, the rows can become | | | | not a great look! I replaced these wires with modern, |
| separated and look "spidery," ruining the grace and | | | | very thin, white-colored wires. The flowers suddently |
| flow of the piece. A good rule of thumb is to lace any | | | | looked fresh and new again. |