Beaded Flowers - and why everything is so little lately

I've spent the last couple of evenings making these little beaded flowers.

They aren't complicated, but they are a little time consuming.

 I'm using tiny jewellers wire and glass seed beads...basically, just string them all on there one by one until you have about 12" worth.

I found the best way to do it is to spill a bunch out onto a sheet of felt and then just poke them with the wire and push it up the wire with your finger.  Note: you really do want to push the bead up after every single one, otherwise they will end up just shooting across the room when you slip.

 Then just make one loop at a time, wrapping the wire around the previous loop, or around the center (whatever it takes to keep it secure) until you have the number of loops you want.

 I did 5 loops for the bottom layer and 6 or 7 for the top, depending on how they looked.

 I made two separate flowers, on two separate wires, and strung a button onto a third piece of wire, and then assembled all three pieces together and twisted the wires together underneath. 

For scale: The outer flower is a little over 2" across.

 I played around with colour combinations, but my favourite is probably the all clear one.

 I still thought they were a little too tiny, so I added some feathers for fun, and hot glued them to a piece of dogwood branch, since these will be props for some vases...

 ...although now I want some for in my hair...

 I think it's just the thing to bring a pop of colour to my all white vases at the show without having to deal with fresh flowers.

And for those of you wondering why everything lately is so small - I am limiting myself to this rubbermaid bin for props at my August show.  Last year, it felt like I brought half a truck load and it was just too much to deal with.  I'm hoping to have more stock this year, plus - the minions (and all their gear) are coming with me so space will be limited.  Wish me luck?

Linking up with: Keep Calm Craft On over at Frontier Dreams