Customer Reviews

French Beaded Flowers I: A Guide for Beginners

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have searched libraries and book stores everywhere and have not found an updated tutorial on this Victorian craft. The only books available are 40 years old! Thank You, Helen McCall! She has provided simple, beginners projects that won't take forever to finish. My only complaint is that the book is way too short!

While some folks have said they had a bit of trouble with the directions here, I found them very easy to understand and use. Her diagrams on the basic techniques are clear and helpful, and the several patterns I've done so far have worked up beautifully. I also liked that her patterns are for full (albeit small) arrangements -- some beaded flower patterns out there are for single flowers, and it's fun to create a whole mini-arrangement instead! (They make GREAT gifts, too!)

The title of the book suggests she plans to release others -- and I can't wait for them!

If you've been dying to try French beaded flowers, and can't find (or bear to pay $$$ for!) any of the old 1970's out of print "bibles" of this craft, this is a great way to get started!

Useful and simple, a thin booklet about how to string beaded flowers on wire. Geared to different arrangements/different varieties of flowers.

This was the first book I was able to find on the craft of beaded flowers, hence the only reason I shelled out $20 for the thinnest manual I've ever seen. These days if you do a search many how-to books pop up; most of which I'd recommend before buying this one. I've read about a dozen of them now, and while this particular pamphlet has a lot of good information and a few patterns--any of the other books offer just the same (if not better) instructions and patterns. When I look at it in comparison with the other resources available, I'm disappointed I spent so much on so little.

The images of the actual flowers were too small to actually see any detail.
Although the directions of each step are shown in the front of the book, I find that I have to keep turning the pages back when making each flower. I am a beginner but I thought there were too many written and hard to understand directions.
It is also a very small book for $19.95.

The beaded flower projects are just the right size to have almost instant creative gratification. They are also the right size to fit almost anywhere in your home and/or office decor and in the decor of your friends and family.

The instructions are clear and the background information is very interesting. This is a delightful book just to pick up and enjoy looking through, too.

At 32 pages, I feel that this book is much too short to command the premium price of nearly $20, especially when there are much less expensive books out there with a far greater variety of projects. Thirteen years ago when this book came out (it's 2008), there were few choices for books on French Beaded Flowers: you could buy this, or you could scour old book stores for out of print books from the 1970's or earlier. (Some beaded flower books go back to the early 1900's. I haven't found any earlier than that, although they probably exist)

Personally, I have no problem with out of print books for projects like this: seed beads are seed beads, although you can get much nicer seed beads than the authors of those books, and flower are flowers. If you want modern directions and arrangements, you can't go wrong with either Bead Flowers or The Beaded Garden: Creating Flowers with Beads and Thread, which are less expensive and are far more comprehensive than this little flyer.

This flyer was okay for the time when it was released, a time when beading had practically died out, except for a few fanatics (like me). At the time, almost nothing new was being released, and it was affordable to own every beading book that was carried in the bookstores. I know, I owned them all. Now that there are hundreds of beading books in print, and dozens on beaded flowers, there really isn't a reason to buy this one.

This is an ok book, but the directions are fairly confusing. Other than that, it's an good book.