Once upon a time, women decorated their outfit with braids - wide ornaments woven from small precious stones and pearls, which were worn on the sleeves and on the neck like a collar. Later, precious stones began to be replaced with small glass beads, but the technique of joining them into wide patterned ribbons remained the same. Flat bead weaving was used to decorate clothes; ties, necklaces and bracelets were woven of the same type. Thin multi-color interweaving of bead threads, creating amazingly beautiful ornaments, interspersed with larger stones and pearls, with beaded fringe and pendants decorated not only costumes of nobility, a similar technique was widely used by many peoples to color national costumes.
The beauty of glass, its overflow and brilliance, fragility and transparency have always attracted artists to create various interesting things. Multicolor glass beads, so similar to small precious stones, began to be used to create voluminous objects decorating the interior. For weaving, a wire frame is used, which holds its shape well, remaining plastic. From the multi-colored beads strung on a wire create bouquets of flowers, art panels, lampshades, and also trees from beads.
The tree has always been endowed with a deep symbolic meaning. It is considered a symbol of life and longevity, wealth and a happy family life. In the Druid calendar, each month of the year corresponds to a certain tree - the patron and protector. Bead trees can be woven in different ways. The compositions with trees imitating Japanese bonsai are very beautiful. They will become a wonderful decoration of the interior, as well as a gift with a deep mythological and symbolic meaning. Colored bead trees can be weaved by yourself. It is enough to master several techniques in order to later master the weaving of various types of trees. Let's try to master this simple technique using the example of one of them.
Bead trees. Willow
Weeping willow is a touching tender tree, very decorative, with delicate long, sticky branches hanging down to the ground. To depict it from beads, you need to take about 100 grams of green and 50 grams of light green beads. You can replace the green with silver-gray. Still needed a coil of thin wire, a little thick wire for the trunk, floral tape and sponge, decorative pot and pebbles.
Any tree consists of branches of various lengths and thickness and trunk. Willow twigs are thin and long with elongated small leaves. Let's make the first twig. To do this, take a thin wire, cut off a sufficiently long end and string 7 beads on it. We bend the wire in half, the beads are located in the center of the bend. We make a loop, twisting the wire three or four times. Now on one of the ends we again string 7 beads and twist the loop. So gradually we collect a willow twig, arranging the leaves symmetrically on both sides. For greater realism, at the end of the branch we make leaves of lighter beads, moving to the center, mix the light and dark beads, and at the base of the branch of the leaf we make only of dark beads. You can make part of the twigs entirely from dark beads, and some from light.
Thus, about 80 branches of different lengths, with a different number of leaves, should be made. About one third of the long, medium and short. The more branches, the larger the tree will be. Do not forget to leave a loose wire at the end of the branches long enough to attach them to the base of the tree.
Now we connect the branches to each other. We take several long, medium and short branches and fasten them to a thick steel wire. We mask the base of the wire with a floral tape, tightly twisting it in a spiral. Ready branches are interconnected. We keep the necessary proportions.
From the thick wire around the branches we form the trunk. It should be thickened at the base, slightly broken, tilted. First, wrap the wire with a smooth ribbon or cloth, and then mask it with a floral tape.
We strengthen the finished tree in a pot with a floral sponge and sprinkle with pebbles. Then we distribute the branches, straighten them, give them the desired shape. A tender and touching tree is ready.
Trees made of beads are distinguished by bright decorativeness, unusualness. Bright clusters of beads, like small gems, shine and shimmer in the light. Having acquired certain skills, you can make a large tree, it will become a powerful decorative center of the interior, inevitably attracting attention.