3 French Beaded Flower Tutorials to Try

Are you ready to start making French beaded flowers but don’t know where to begin? Watching video tutorials is one of the best ways to learn this beautiful craft. Videos let you see exactly how the beads and wire come together to form gorgeous flowers. Today, we’ll explore three excellent tutorials that are perfect for beginners and intermediate crafters. Each tutorial teaches important skills while helping you create something truly beautiful.

Tutorial 1: Apple Blossoms – Your Perfect First Flower

The French beaded apple blossoms pattern from Bead Floral is an ideal starting point for anyone new to this craft. This tutorial has been watched nearly 99,000 times, which shows how popular and helpful it is. The video is about 11 minutes long, making it short enough to watch without getting overwhelmed but detailed enough to learn properly.

Why Start with Apple Blossoms?

Apple blossoms are perfect for beginners for several reasons. First, they’re small and simple, so you won’t spend days working on your first project. Second, they use basic techniques that you’ll need for almost every other flower pattern. Third, they’re very forgiving – if you make a small mistake, it probably won’t show in the final flower. Finally, they’re actually beautiful! Your first project will be something you’ll want to keep and display.

What You’ll Learn

This tutorial teaches you the fundamentals of French beading. You’ll learn how to set up your wire correctly, how to count beads accurately, and how to create the basic frame technique. The basic frame is like the skeleton of your flower petal – you create an outline with wire, then fill it in with rows of beads. You’ll also learn how to shape petals so they look natural and curved rather than flat and stiff.

The instructor explains everything clearly, showing close-up shots of her hands so you can see exactly what she’s doing. She even offers a free PDF pattern that you can download and print. This pattern shows you exactly how many beads to use for each petal and how to arrange them.

What You’ll Make

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have completed a beautiful apple blossom with five rounded petals. Apple blossoms are typically white or pale pink with soft pink edges. The center has small yellow stamens (those are the parts that stick up from the middle of real flowers). One apple blossom looks lovely on its own, but if you make several, you can create a spring branch arrangement that looks amazing.

Time Investment

Plan to spend about one to two hours making your first apple blossom. This might sound like a long time, but it includes learning the techniques, making mistakes, and figuring things out. Your second flower will probably take half the time because you’ll already know what to do.

Tutorial 2: French Beaded Rose – Creating a Classic Beauty

Once you’ve mastered apple blossoms, you’re ready for something more challenging and impressive. The DIY Beaded Rose Tutorial from Bead Spider is a complete beginner guide to making roses. This 19-minute video has helped over 78,000 people learn to create these classic flowers.

Roses are probably the most popular French beaded flower pattern, and for good reason. A beaded rose looks incredibly beautiful and makes a wonderful gift. Imagine giving someone a rose that will never die – it’s meaningful and practical. Roses are also versatile. You can make a single rose stem for someone special, create a bouquet of roses in different colors, or use roses as parts of larger decorative projects.

What Makes This Tutorial Special

The Bead Spider tutorial breaks down the rose-making process into clear, manageable steps. The instructor shows you how to make each type of petal, starting with the small inner petals and gradually working up to the larger outer petals. She explains how to wrap petals around each other to create that classic rose shape that everyone loves.

What makes this tutorial particularly helpful is that it shows both the techniques AND the assembly process. Many tutorials teach you how to make individual petals but then rush through putting them together. This video takes its time showing you exactly how to position each petal and secure it properly so your rose holds its shape.

Understanding Rose Construction

A rose isn’t just one piece – it’s made of many petals at different sizes. You’ll make small, tightly wrapped inner petals first. These form the rose’s center. Then you create medium-sized petals that start opening up a bit. Finally, you make large outer petals that are quite open. When you wrap all these petals together in the right order, you get a rose that looks like it could have grown in a garden.

The tutorial also teaches you how to make leaves using the same basic frame technique but with green beads. Roses look much more realistic and complete when they have proper leaves attached to the stem.

Time and Skill Level

Making your first rose will take several hours, possibly spread across multiple crafting sessions. This isn’t a quick project, but it’s definitely worth the effort. The tutorial assumes you already know basic beading techniques (which you’ll learn from the apple blossom tutorial), so you won’t feel completely lost. However, roses are definitely a step up in difficulty because they have so many parts that need to fit together perfectly.

Tutorial 3: Spring Blossoms – Beautiful Flowers for Confident Beginners

The Introduction to French Beaded Flowers spring blossom tutorial is perfect for people who have made one or two simple flowers and are ready for something new. This 23-minute video has over 104,000 views and teaches the art of French beading through creating spring blossoms.

What Are Spring Blossoms?

Spring blossoms are those beautiful flowers you see on cherry trees, plum trees, and other flowering trees in early spring. They have five delicate petals and often come in white, pale pink, or bright pink. Spring blossoms look complicated, but they’re actually quite manageable once you understand the technique.

What This Tutorial Teaches

This tutorial is special because it’s designed as an introduction to French beading as a whole, not just one flower. The instructor takes time to explain why you do certain things, not just what to do. Understanding the “why” behind techniques helps you solve problems on your own and eventually create your own flower designs.

You’ll learn advanced shaping techniques that make petals look more realistic. The tutorial shows how to give petals natural curves and how to position them so they look like real flower petals. You’ll also learn about color combinations – how to use different colored beads together to create depth and interest in your flowers.

Seed Beads and Their Magic

The tutorial focuses on using seed beads, which are the tiny beads that give French beaded flowers their detailed, realistic appearance. The instructor explains different sizes of seed beads and how they affect your final flower. Smaller beads create more detailed flowers but take longer to make. Larger beads work up faster but have a different look.

Branch Arrangements

One of the best parts of this tutorial is that it doesn’t stop at making individual flowers. The instructor shows you how to arrange multiple spring blossoms on a branch to create a piece that looks like it came from a flowering tree. This takes your project from “a few nice flowers” to “impressive artwork worthy of display.” You’ll learn how to wrap stems with floral tape, position flowers at natural-looking angles, and create a balanced arrangement.

Perfect for Building Skills

This tutorial sits perfectly between the simple apple blossom and the complex rose. It introduces techniques that you’ll use in more advanced projects without overwhelming you. By the time you finish this tutorial, you’ll have solid skills and a beautiful spring blossom branch to show for your efforts.

Time Investment

Expect to spend three to four hours making your first spring blossom branch with several flowers. This includes time for making multiple blossoms and assembling them into an arrangement. However, each individual blossom doesn’t take that long – once you get the hang of it, you can make one blossom in about 30 minutes.

Getting the Most from These Tutorials

Now that you know about these three excellent tutorials, here are some tips for getting the best results:

Gather Your Supplies First: Before starting any tutorial, make sure you have all the materials you need. Nothing is more frustrating than getting halfway through a project and realizing you’re missing something essential.

Watch Before You Start: Watch each tutorial all the way through before you begin working. This gives you an overview of the entire process and helps you understand where you’re heading. You’ll also notice if the tutorial mentions any special supplies or preparation you need.

Pause and Rewind Freely: The beauty of video tutorials is that you can control the pace. Pause the video while you complete each step. Rewind and watch tricky parts multiple times. There’s no rush – take your time and work at your own speed.

Take Notes: Keep paper and pen handy. Write down bead counts, wire lengths, and any tips the instructor mentions. These notes help you remember important details without constantly rewinding the video.

Be Patient with Yourself: Your first flower won’t look exactly like the instructor’s, and that’s okay! Even the instructors in these videos mention that their early flowers weren’t perfect. Every flower you make teaches you something and improves your skills.

Conclusion

These three tutorials – apple blossoms, roses, and spring blossoms – provide a solid foundation for French beaded flower making. Start with apple blossoms to learn the basics, move on to spring blossoms to build your skills, and tackle roses when you’re feeling confident. Each tutorial offers clear instruction, close-up views, and helpful tips that make learning this beautiful craft much easier. The best part is that these tutorials are free on YouTube, available whenever you want to learn. So pick your first tutorial, gather your supplies, and start creating flowers that will bring beauty to your home for years to come.