I figured it out! I used what I had on hand, like I do, so it isn't an exact copy and certainly not as elegant looking but I did figure out how to do it. I didn't have any floral wire that was thin enough to fit through any of the beads I have so I just used some thin brass wire.
Since I have the new camera and I need to practice, I took pictures along the way. Macro pictures - wowza! Okay, not the best macro pictures, but I'm still learning. They were taken without a tripod, which is awesome to me. Love that!!
I had no idea how much wire it would take so I cut a piece 24" long and hoped for the best. I strung on one dark green bead and moved it to the center of the wire. Then I strung a light green bead on one side and a light green followed by a dark green on the other side. The next step is to take the end of the wire on one side and thread it through the beads on the opposite side. Then do the same with the other side. I love how the background in this picture is out of focus. I wish I knew how I accidently did that.
This next picture shows how it looks with the wire from one side strung through the opposite side. You can click these pictures bigger and get an even better look at the paint spots on my workbench.
This is how it looks with the wire from each side strung back through the opposite side. Each bead will have two pieces of wire inside it. I alternated which side had the uneven number of beads. I don't know if that is important but it seemed like it might be to keep the unused length of the wire even on each side. Gently pull up each side until all the wire is taken up and the row is snugged up against the previous row.
This is how my experiment holds up to the original. Wouldn't these be great done in black and metallic colors like bronze and pewter?? Maybe that is just my creepy goth steampunk side talking but it sounds interesting to me.
Go forth and make leaves. Email me if you have questions!
