:: Making tiaras with miniature paper roses and beads ::
Tiaras are great fun to make and enable you to really draw on your creative vision. Here I am going to tell you how I make tiaras with miniature paper roses and beads like the examples below:
As you can see they are all variations on a theme - the white and red tiaras are on gold-plated tiara bands and the pink and lilac on silver-plated. Although the finished product looks expensive they are relatively cheap to make and unique. The pearls, crystals, leaves and lilies that I have used on these examples come pre-wired. You can of course create your own depending on how much time you have. I will add a tutorial on creating beaded floral sprigs another time.
Components for making these tiaras are available from my bead shop, Bead Tree.
I find one of the most useful items when making tiaras is a craft vice. This enables you to have both hands free for wiring on the decoration whilst the tiara is firmly held upright.
1. First of all it is best to gather together all the beads, flowers, wired sprigs that you need to complete the tiara. For the pink tiara I have used 8 paper roses, 7 small pearl sprigs, 7 crystal sprigs and 8 frosted beads along the band.
2. I find it best to start wiring on the decorations from the centre outwards to ensure that the spacing is even. Because the tiara is designed to be worn on the head you need to be careful to enclose any wire ends so it is best to finish winding the wire around the front of the tiara. Don’t worry about the ends showing as they will be covered with the roses and frosted beads. To get a nice shape to the tiara I like to reduce the height of each decorative sprig so the tallest is in the middle. Pull them nice and tight against the band.
TIP: when wiring on your decorations it is useful to take the wire round the right of the pre-wired sprig, then round the left, then round the right, then round the left and so on. This provides a more stable base to the sprigs and they are less likely to slip round the band.
3. Using the pink tiara as an example you can see that I have made a double layer of beaded sprigs:
To achieve this I started with the wired crystals, completed the row and then went back and added the pearl sprigs. You might like to make one row taller than the other to show off the decorations to their best advantage. You also need to leave a space big enough to take the paper roses when they are added in the next stage.
4. All the wired sprigs are now on the band but it looks unfinished at the front. The paper roses and round frosted beads cover any unsightly ends. The paper roses come pre-wired and as before wire them on with the ends towards the front.
5. The last decorations to go on are the frosted beads. To attach these first thread them onto a long piece of fine gauge wire (2m should probably be enough). Push the beads to one end (attach a small piece of masking tape at the end of the wire to prevent them falling off) and starting at the end of the tiara band (where there is usually a small hole) attach the wire and begin winding around the band tightly and neatly. When you reach the applied decorations slide a bead down the wire. Keep winding as before tightly binding in any ends and stabilising the decorations already added. Each time you reach a space between a rose slip a bead down the wire and keep on winding. When you reach the end of the deocrative area you want to wind on to the end of the band so that it matches the other side.
6. Finally finish the ends of the tiara band off with some white floral tape so the wire does not come undone and does not stick into the wearer’s head.
Now try it on!
Supplies for making tiaras are available from my shop, Bead Tree.
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Bead Tree - my bead shop offering beads (!!), jewellery making components and tiara making supplies.
