Pincushion Proteas are a beautifully odd tropical plant that is native to South Africa. I’ve designed a way to recreate these flowers using seed beads and wire in the French Beading Method. The finished flowers are about 3 inches wide.

The PDF is 15 pages long and contains over 50 high quality images, along with detailed written instructions for creating your own flowers. It is written in English using Imperial measurements. But a chart for converting to Metric is included in the PDF.

The PDF contains shading patterns and color lists for all of the displayed flowers, though the orange one is the standard version.

(c) 2022 Lauren Harpster. All rights reserved. These patterns have been published for personal use only. They may not be shared, sold, or re-distributed in any way. They may not be used for teaching classes. Items made from the pattern may be sold, but please be respectful and acknowledge me as the designer in listings, social media posts, and sale displays.

Standard Materials List:

Makes 1 Pincushion Protea and 10 leaves
Seed Beads (Rocailles):
A. 9 grams 11/0 opaque luster dark orange (pins)
B. 15 grams 11/0 opaque luster orange (pins)
C. 4 grams 11/0 opaque rainbow yellow (stamen)
D. 9 grams 11/0 opaque luster lime green (stamen)
E. 35 grams 11/0 semi-glazed clover (leaves)
F. ~2 grams 11/0 semi-glazed orange AB (leaves)
G. 4 grams 15/0 opaque lime green (calyx)
H. 1.5 grams 15/0 opaque AB jade green (calyx)

Copper Core Wire:
• ~35 ft (11 m) 24 gauge natural colored copper wire (pins, stamen)
• ~25 ft (8 m) 24 gauge green colored copper wire (leaves)
• 10 ft (3.1 m) 26 gauge green colored copper wire (calyx)
• 7 ft (2.2 m) 30 gauge green colored copper wire (leaves)

Other:
• 14 gauge galvanized steel wire cut to desired stem length – or – 3x lengths of 16g florist stem wire combined together with floral tape
• Light green embroidery floss – I used DMC 470
• Light green floral tape