The reverse wrap technique is a variation on the basic technique that you would use if the tops of your petals were rolled back or rolled down, and the backs of your petals were highly visible. It’s a way to hide the metal wrappers at the bottom of the petal. For example, if you’re making a rose and the sepals won’t be pressed against the bottom of your petals, the backs will show through. Many times you will be able to use wires of the same color, but even these can show more metal than you would like.
If you are making a white rose in gold wire, be aware that exposed and stretched gold wire can discolor over time. Having a lot of visible wire that gets darker will spoil the flawless look of the rose.
We’ll start with a rose petal, the bottom round and the top pointy. Start your petal as usual, with the basic row on the basic wire, plus the basic wire loop at the bottom. Make row 2, which is the first row from the bottom of the petal to the top, and wrap it as normal, at a 45 degree angle to the point. Flip the piece upside down. Load all the beads you will need for row 3. When you get to the basic loop with the wire from your spool, don’t wrap it from front to back as usual. Bring the spool of loaded wire around the back of the piece and wrap it from back to front, in a straight line to achieve the round shape as usual.
Continue with the petal, wrapping all the top rows (or even rows) from front to back and all the bottom rows (or odd rows) from back to front. This will give your petal a “right side” at the top and a “wrong side” at the bottom, both on the same side of the petal. On the other side, you will have the reverse: a “wrong side” at the top and a “right side” at the bottom. Be sure to fold the cut top basic wire down to the “wrong side” to eliminate a messy cut wire showing on the “right side” of your finished flower.
If you want, you can make all the petals of a rose this way. If it’s a dense rose, which has many layers of petals and only the backs of an outer layer of the larger petals will be showing, you can use this technique for just that outer layer.
I suggest using this technique only on the rounded ends of the petals, mainly because it’s easier, and a wrap for a rounded petal end shows less wire by definition: there’s no diagonal wrap, which uses more wire. If your flower has rounded petals on both the top and bottom, that’s the easiest and you can reverse the wrap on the top or bottom of the petal.
When you are assembling your flower, attach these petals with the bottom “right side” to the outside of your flower. When you roll the tops of the petals down, you’ll notice that the outer surface of the flower shows very little wire wrapping.