Beaded Flowers and Wire Dipped Foliage

I used to make a lot of beaded jewelry. Over the years I acquired a wonderful assortment of (mostly) Czech glass beads. I bought some in  Jablonec, some at  Michaels, and some from Shipwreck Beads in Lacey, WA.

   However, after about 10 years, my passion for making beaded jewelry waned. It seemed to me that beaded bracelets and necklaces were no longer as popular. The flame fizzled.

I became more focused on painting, doing art with my grandchildren, and making costumes and clothing.

   In the grim winter months of 2026 when the news was so depressing, 

I needed color! 

I needed my beads! 

I needed flowers! 

Inspiration came. I wanted to make glass flowers for various Czech vases on windowsills in our house. The vases just seem so empty...

My husband Milos, for several years, had collected beautiful vases, especially Pavel Hlava Exbor Glass. There were also two bud vases that I bought directly from the Czech glass artist Jan Beranek in Skrdlovice, Czech Republic. 

  I could easily envision the flowers being made from beads, but the leaves not. Having worked with wire in my jewelry efforts, I wanted to dip wired shapes into resin for the foliage. I set myself up with some green resin and a UV lamp and ventured into a new craft. 

This was my first bouquet in a bud vase by Beranek:

This is what it looks like in my workroom when I am making the beaded flowers.

Here are some further bouquets:

The Blue vase below is by Beranek.

I ran out of resin and am waiting for another jar to arrive - shipped from China it turns out and it is very slowly making its way east. This bouquet is in a traditional Czech cut crystal vase.