Vintage Love

 I don't know the entire story behind these amazing beaded poppies.  I know they were made by a friend of my Grandma's named Posie.  Back when I was first learning to make beaded flowers I would live with my Grandma in the summers to work at an internship.  So she watched me go through the early learning phases of flower making. 
Back then she and another friend would road trip to visit Posie once a year or so.  One trip she brought back 2 books, The Art of Making Bead Flowers and Bouquets by Virginia Nathanson and Bead Design by Ruth Wasley and Edith Harris.  Both are out of print and hard to find.  There wasn't much out there in the world of beaded flower books.  These two books were and still are the most inspiring books I have.  I'm past the stage of looking at books to learn how to make flowers, I do all my patterns on my own.  But if you are new and can get your hands on these vintage books I highly recommend them.  Something about learning a vintage art from vintage books just feels right to me.

 At the same time she brought back the books, Grandma also brought back these yellow poppies beaded by Posie.  She combined them with some peach beaded flowers that no one remembers where she got, and placed them into a heavy stone vase.  They've sat in her living room for 12 years.

Earlier this summer I was up visiting Gram and she asked if I wanted Posie's poppies.  Of course I did.  They are lovely.  We guess that she made them back in the 60ies.  Posie has since passed away.  But I love how great a condition her flowers are in.  They aren't even laced and each petal still has it's original shape.  There was a pretty good layer of dust on them but I gently cleaned them and the glass beads still have all their color.  The steel wires still feel strong.  The stems are holding together perfectly.  This is an excellent example of how well beaded flowers can hold up to time.  If they are treated well and they can look almost like new 50 years later.

This little vase of flowers now sits on my bedroom dresser.  Every morning it makes me happy.  And I can't help but hope that someday 50 years from now my flowers will be on some one's dresser making them happy too.  haha, cheesy but true.