Learn French Beading: Beginner Course

Book excerpt: French Beading is a bead-and-wire art from the Renaissance used primarily to make flowers. Learn the art from designer Lauren Harpster in this new publication made specifically for beginners who've never touched beads or wire, but is also an excellent resource for experienced French Beading artists. This title is a hard copy of my Learn French Beading: Beginner Course video series on YouTube. Instructions for accessing the videos are included inside the book (Videos will be available after Feb 29th). *Part 1 is the "Getting Started" guide. Before making French Beaded Flowers it is very important to understand the materials needed to make them. This section explores tools, beads, wire, and other supplies in detail, though not all of them will be necessary for this course. *Part 2 is the "Technique Guide", which contains six lessons that teach the techniques included in this course - Continuous Loops, Continuous Crossover Loops, Continuous Wraparound Loops, Fringe, Basic Frame, and Lacing. These lessons are important for learning French Beading terms and abbreviations, and how to read French Beading patterns. I like to teach techniques separately from flower patterns because there's so much more I can teach you about an individual technique than what I can cover in a single flower pattern. There are also some variations of the techniques that are not used in the practice patterns, but are included for education and reference. This section is also intended to be a one-stop technique reference so you can quickly look up specific techniques while working with other flower patterns. Each lesson has a video demonstration so you can see the techniques in action, but they also contain picture and written instructions for the techniques. *Part 3 contains four wildflower patterns that I've developed specifically for helping you practice the base techniques learned in Part 2 - Lavender, Dame's Rocket, Blue Virgin's Bower, and Black-Eyed Susan. The patterns have been written with beginners in mind and contain a high level of detail, so they're a great way to dip your toes into the art. This section is important for seeing practical application of the techniques, reinforcing the ability to read patterns, and learning how to assemble and shape a variety of flowers. I have also made video demonstrations of each of the flowers. While I demonstrate flower parts fully in the videos, I only show techniques as they are used in that particular flower. So you can start with Part 3 if you use the videos, but I do recommend that you go back through the lessons in Part 2. *Part 4 will demonstrate how to arrange the flowers from Part 3 to make a wildflower arrangement. I am not a professional florist, but I'd like to share what I've learned about arranging beaded flowers. This section is included only in the book version of the course.