It started out as an experiment in creating little balls of floral buds, I wanted to see how they would look. I had a lot of blue beads, so started with that.
The basic design for the floret is used in geranium, lilacs etc. but I'm sure it can be used in a multitude of other ways as well. As I progressed along, I started to find that the buds reminded me of the blue hydrangea my mother gave me on my 27th birthday. With that in mind, I set out to create a little plant to give to her in return.
It didn't quite come out the way I would have liked it too. I ran out of the primary blue I was using and I had to change beads. As my husband pointed out, in nature plants are seldom perfectly uniform and he thought it gave the plant a more natural look. I think he was just trying to be nice. In this case, not only did I use two different colours, but the beads are also differently cut and are not the same finish. The darker blue has a square cut interior with a silver lining whereas the lighter blue are round cut and transparent. I think in this case, the difference in cut and style is what I'm not happy with rather than the colour difference.
If I decide at some point to create another hydrangea, I might consider mixing two different shades of the same colour throughout the florets. A lighter interior with a darker edging, or something like that.
I actually did decide on that design element for the leaves and I am really happy with how those turned out. The outer edge of each leaf is highlighted in a slightly lighter green. Making leaves or petals like that takes much longer as the last row of beads has to be hand threaded, but I think the additional time was well worth the effort.
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