History of Flowers in Fashion

Adornment with flowers goes back to ancient times. The ancient Egyptians  depicted some of their gods as wearing plumed headdresses. The ancient Greeks and Romans wore flowers in their hair as individual flowers and in garlands, especially at weddings. The art of wearing flowers in the hair also is found in the cultures of India and Polynesia. Artifical flowers go back to ancient times and were mentioned in the Bible in the chapter concerning King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Flowers were used to decorate churches in the Middle Ages in Europe, natural flowers in the summer, artificial flowers made by nuns in the winter. Flower making for hats and clothing began as a commercial venture in France in the 18th Century and then spread to Germany.
Millefiore is a technique of applying small thin flowers to glass beads, pendants, and other glass objects. This technique dates back to ancient Greece, Rome, and Phoenicia. It was perfected by the Venetians in their beadmaking beginning in the Middle Ages. The word millefiore means thousands of flowers.
Harvard's Botanical Museum in the 19th Century commissioned Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka in Germany to make glass plants and flowers for the purpose of teaching botany. This collection was made during the period of 1887 to 1939. It remains today as a classic collection of glass plant models and is known for its exactness. In recent times the making of glass beads in the shape of flowers has become very much in syle. you can see examples at Fashion Flowers by the Beadshaper.

History of Crochet and Bead Crochet

The word crochet comes from the French word for hook. Crochet is a method of weaving strands of material into patterns. It differs from needlework in that crochet uses one hook and needlework uses 2 needles. The earliest crochet-like work probably goes back to ancient times when a finger was used instead of a hook. Crochet was definitely known to have been done in the Renaissance times and became especially popular in the 1800s continuing to present times. Classical crochet uses yarn or similar fabric strands.
Crafters began crocheting beads onto bags and clothing in the 1800s using yarn and other classical crochet fabrics. Recently jewelry artists have begun using silver and other precious metals to crochet beads into necklaces, bracelets, and other jewelry. Examples of bead crochet jewelry can be found at Beadshaper .
The Beadshaper teaches classes in making Bead Crochet jewelry. See Beadshaper Jewelry Classes for details.