One of the “founding mothers” of French beaded flowers in America, Virginia Nathanson, saw some potted beaded flower arrangements at Bonwit Teller’s gift shop in Manhattan several decades ago. She wondered how they were made.
He used a pretty drastic forensic method to get his answer.
She bought one of the beautiful, large arrangements and took it home with her. Unlike other customers in that gift shop, she did not put the arrangement on a coffee table to admire it. She didn’t want the visitors to gawk, exclaiming over the workmanship and asking where she had found that treasure.
Instead, Virginia disarmed him. She completely dismantled it. She took apart the bouquets and unwrapped all the silk wrapping and floral ribbon. She separated each leaf and sepal from the stem of it. She broke off each flower and unwound the wires from each petal, counting and measuring lengths and the number of beads that had been used. She examined what materials were used to bud, support, and plant the flowers.
Through this simple method, Mrs. Nathanson discovered the French beaded flower construction techniques and learned them well. She taught them for many years and wrote several comprehensive books on the subject. These books formed one of the first series of French bead flower pattern books to be published in the US.
The destruction of that Bonwit arrangement was the beginning of the development of many, many new beaded flower artists. Hundreds of flower bouquets, arrangements, headbands, corsages, and countless other items emerged from the information Virginia Nathanson provided. Artists in America, and now around the world, have been inspired to learn this art, teach it to others, and make beautiful creations with improved and refined materials. In recent years, artists who learned the art from Ms. Nathanson’s books have produced many excellent new pattern books and other teaching materials.
New bead flower artists from around the world worked together to make a wreath for each crash site on September 11, 2001. One of these wreaths now hangs in the Pentagon, another is on permanent display at the Museum of Liberty in Philadelphia and the third is part of the permanent memorial at the Ground Zero museum.
Ms. Nathanson passed away in the spring of 2008. Thank you, Ms. Nathanson, for destroying that beautiful Bonwit arrangement. You have been an inspiration and you were a great lady.
Thanks for reading and happy counting!