 The History of Beaded Flowers
(continued) By Rosemary Kurtz
In Venice in the 16th century, middle class and poor women made bead flowers for churches, banquet tables and parade floats. There are accounts that someone could walk down the streets of Venice and see women sitting outside every door, making ornaments out of wire and tiny glass beads. At one time Venice was a center for the actual production of beads. And according to one source, at one point all the beadmaking activity in Venice was moved onto the island of Murano. Murano glass vases and other items are still treasured today.
Flowers by Christel Schirmer
 Around the Napoleonic era (1768-1821), Italian and French peasants who tended the vineyards in the summer were recruited to work with beads in the winter. They would be assigned to embroider the ball gowns and jackets of the court nobility with beads. Imperfect beads or beads that would not fit over the needle were saved and made into flowers. These imperfect beads may have been strung onto wire for the flowers with horsehair or human hair. These flowers were used to decorate church altars, and were carried by altar boys for Easter and Christmas.
 In Victorian times, royal European brides often wore wreaths or circlets of bead flowers and carried bead bouquets on their wedding day. The custom at the time was for the bride to abandon the fancy hairdo’s of the time, and wear her hair simply, straight down her back, and adorn her head with a floral wreath. If she were getting married at a time of the year when fresh flowers were unavailable, bead flowers was an excellent solution.
1946 beaded Hair Wreath
Wreaths/Tape/DVDs
There are many Internet groups on all kinds of crafts, and bead flowers are no exception. I am a member of two groups, one of which has over 1,500 members worldwide. In response to the 9/11 disaster, one of our members suggested that, since one of the original uses for bead flowers was in funeral wreaths, it would be appropriate for our group to make memorial bead-flower wreaths for each of the crash sites. There was an overwhelming response from the group.
The NY Wreath
 Among those responses were several from new beaders. These new members had just heard of bead flower making and had joined the group, but didn’t yet know any of the techniques. They were afraid they wouldn’t be able to participate in the wreath project. One of them asked if there were any instructional videotapes available to help beginners. So, the following weekend, I made a tape outlining the basic techniques, so that even the newest flower beader could contribute at least a small flower and a few green leaves to the project.
Pennsylvania Crash Site Wreath
 The Pentagon Wreath
In order to centralize the work for each of the wreaths, volunteers from the group handled the actual receiving and assembly of flowers and leaves for each wreath. These volunteers generously gave of their time and resources to get wooden forms and materials, and in one case, a beautiful brass stand to hold the finished products. Hundreds of handmade, long-stemmed flowers and leaves were made and sent in from group members around the world, and were assembled into the breathtaking wreaths. These wreaths are now in the Pentagon, the Liberty Museum in Philadelphia, and New York. The New York Wreath is permanently placed in a glass case in a boardroom of the WTC Museum Foundation Headquarters. The Pentagon wreath is in a large, glass wall-mounted case in a new hallway that leads to a chapel commemorating those who died on 9/11. Pictures of all these wreaths and a professionally-written brochure about the project are available on my website.
Swarovski Project
Several years ago, when the Swarovski Crystal company was first making their line of crystal beads, they commissioned me and my beading friends to design and create the first Swarovski crystal bead flowers to showcase their beads. We produced a group of flowers that delighted us and the Swarovski company as well.
This collection of flowers toured the world, and is now back at the main offices of the Swarovski Company in Austria. It was a very exciting project, and we felt privileged to be a part of it. Many of the patterns from that original project have now been collected into their own book by Dalene Kelly, which is available from Amazon.
Shows
I currently hold fifteen blue ribbons for local, national and international competitions, including the Cincinnati Flower Show. My work appears in 2004’s edition of “500 Beaded Objects” from Lark Books, as well as several other publications.
I have exhibited my work in libraries and art shows around Long Island. One of my large pieces was selected to be in the World Book of Beads VII show in November 2004 at the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan.
History of Bead Flowers in America
In 1865, Godey’s Ladies Book published a flower pattern that suggests the flowers could be used as decorations for hair and clothing.
 The Dritz Traum Company released the earliest U.S. pattern, in 1928. It was titled “Hiawatha New Imported Crystal Bead Models.” You may recognize the Dritz name, since they still produce needles and other items.
By 1957, Samuel Wallach of the Walbead company was packaging and selling kits, “Bead a Bouquet,” which included a wide variety of beaded flower instructions.
In 1965, Aleene, of Temple City, California, released what was possibly the first U.S. book of patterns, simply titled “Bead Flowers.”
The art of bead flower making was popular in the U.S. in the late 1960’s to early 1970’s. Years 1966 through 1983 brought us a flurry of publications. These books are now considered the “bibles” of the French beader. The noted authors of these books include the highly respected Virginia Nathanson, Bobbe Anderson, Samuel Wallach, Helen Leibman, Ruth Wasley/Edith Harris and Virginia Osterland. Although these books sometimes appear in garage sales, collectors are willing to pay well in excess of $100.00 each, when they can be found.
 Virginia Nathanson was a Vaudeville performer in her youth. Later on, she saw a bead flower arrangement in a department store in New York City. She wanted to discover the secret of these everlasting flowers, so she bought the arrangement, took it home, and took each flower completely apart. By this rather drastic forensic method, she learned the four basic techniques of French bead flower making.
Mrs. Nathanson’s first book, “The Art of Making Bead Flowers and Bouquets,” is now in reprint in soft cover. The instructions in this book are very clear, and I feel this is an excellent book for the beginner to use.
In the late 60’s and early 70’s, most of the seed beads sold in America were imported from Czechoslovakia. With the last phase of the Cold War, around the late 1980’s, Czech beads were difficult to get, and popularity for the craft diminished.
In 1991, Helen McCall produced a book dedicated entirely to miniatures, and in 1995, Leisure Arts produced a few patterns, in an ornament book. Still, the art seemed to be fading away, in the United States.
Then, the late 1990’s saw a dramatic interest in beaded flowers around the world. Books were published in Japanese, French, Italian, Russian, German, and Dutch. Although some of the styles “cross over,” most of these books use the Victorian technique.
 In the last several years, Mario Rivoli bought up many vintage bead flowers and spray-painted them to create astonishing effects on the flowers. These beads are often seen in shops in New York City, in magazines and online.
Mario Rivoli Flowers in a NY Store
With the start of the new millennium, the United States has shown a renewed interest in French beaded flowers. Magazines are describing the art as “what’s hot” and new French-style pattern books are once again appearing.
Quality beads are now available from many sources. The Internet is making the books and materials available to all beaders, regardless of their location. Many of the books are available from Amazon, and wire, beads and other supplies can be found online at very reasonable prices.
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