After finishing the first morning glory flower I took a trip to the local bead store to check out their collection of size 11 purples. They only carry Miyuki seed beads at that store, and the colors are always different than the Toho beads I mail order. While I was there I picked up some matte silver lined green triangle beads in two shades of green which I am hoping to use for leaves.
My original idea for the morning glory still seems valid after creating the first flower- the beadwork is not floppy and the flower has a nice ruffle which gives it some dimension.
I think the next time I will try without the increase that made such a deep ruffle, and also build up a tube on the back side of the flower. I like the way flower is flat enough to easily attach to a base, but maybe it will look better from the side view if it has the shape of the real flower.
Once I had made the flower I felt compelled to search online for other people's take on beaded morning glories. I found two popular patterns that had been published in books. Diane Fitgerald's book The Beaded Garden has a flower that is created using brick stitch that is quite attractive. I found an example of it by
Jann Block. Another book with a morning glory design is Barbara L. Grangier's Dimensional Flowers, Leaves and Vines. This one also uses brick stitch. A beautiful example of this flower was made by
Svetlana Eltsova. There are so many talented bead artists who share photos of their work online. I am always amazed and inspired by them.
