flowers

3 Ways to Flower Power It Up!

64 Arts

As much as I love to DIY a project, I don’t believe in constantly reinventing the wheel.

With that in mind, we’re going to look at some other ways of assembling garlands that some talented folks have made available by the wonders of the webbernets:

Garland Knot

As I understand it, garland making is a frequent (perhaps daily!) occurrence in India. I’ve seen pictures of the flower markets in the larger cities and they are magnificent with colorful blooms. The flowers are used in all manner of ceremonies and decorations, so many nimble fingers tie the blossoms into both simple and ornate garlands. This garland knot–which looks and feels like a figure-8 with a twist–secures the flowers and solves one of my main wonders:

How do you keep the flowers all lined up and nice when they’re so imbalanced?

Answer: You place them in pairs so that they DO balance! Brilliant.

Wired Bundles

Another way to create swag-like garlands (and, no, I don’t mean swag as in Stuff We All Get goodies) is to wrap, with wire, twine or string, small bundles or stems onto a form or framework of some sort. This could be a grapevine wreath or a carved piece of Styrofoam covered in moss or greenery–even cardboard if you were intent on up-cycling some boxes or packing materials!

(The wrapping demonstration starts around 2:00)

Braiding

If you have long, supple stems you can also braid them together as-is or interspersed with ribbon. If you can do a simple 3-strand braid you can make this sort of garland, but if you’d like some visuals, check out the Braided Princess Crown at Instructables.

arts 14 and 15: Flower Fun!

64 Arts

This sort of feels like cheating, only the next two arts truly go hand in hand and use a lot of the same techniques, so I’m going to combine them in the interest of not repeating myself unnecessarily as well as getting the most bang for our creative buck! (And who’s really going to argue with that?)

We already discussed flower arranging in the 7th Art: Flower Bouquets, this art has to do with more decorative applications both for the body and the home.

14: Garland making
Strung without their leaves, to venerate the gods or decorate the house.

15: Crowns and head ornaments
Headbands or circlets of flowers of all colors, used especially by townspeople.

See? Interrelated. Lots of flowers on the list, but, as with arts past, we’re not going to be bound too closely by the descriptions above. There will be fabrics and sewing, some beads and wire and paper fun if all goes well.

But we’ll start with the flowers because it’s as good as anywhere!

~~~oOo~~~

Basic Garland Making

Fairy Fest Garland

Fairy Fest Garland

This garland is actually left over from last year’s Midsummer Fairy Fest–they surrounded the Mason Jar Centerpieces–but could easily be worn as a circlet or headband. (Instructions for the centerpieces and the garland can be found in the eHow article linked to the name, there.)

The first garlands this art mentions, though, specify no leaves and are created in the same way that Hawaiian leis are–it’s simple stringing. You can use fresh flowers if you’ve got them available but I’m going to use silk ones and make a bracelet for the sake of time.

What You’ll Need:

Fresh or Silk flowers, heads only, stems and leaves removed (lots)
Needle and Thread

Really, that’s it.

Needle, ribbon and silk flower heads

Needle, ribbon and silf flower heads.

01: Measure the length of your intended garland, add an inch or two for knotting and double the total.

02: Thread your needle with the thread and knot the two ends together.

Since I’m making a bracelet with silk flowers, I’m using a tapestry needle and some 1/8-inch ribbon but for fresh flowers you’re probably going to want a regular sewing needle (a long one) and regular sewing thread. Some sources suggest mono-filament but it’s slippery and can sometimes be difficult to knot. Cotton or poly-blend will be perfectly fine for this.

03: Divide your flower heads in half. We’ll be stringing each half in an opposite direction.

Stringing the first half of the flowers.

Stringing the first half of the flowers.

04: Starting with one half of the flowers, thread the needle through each flower-head from the top down through the middle, towards where the stem would have been. Slide the first flower down to the end of the thread (or as close as you plan to have them if you’re going to have streamers trailing) and snug each following flower up next to the previous one.

Another benefit to silk flowers is that most have a little plastic bit in the center for the stamens–use this! It’ll keep your flowers separated just enough to be fluffy without being loose. If you want the same effect using fresh flowers, snip small sections of straws and use them as spacers between each flower.

Stringing the second half of the flowers.

Stringing the second half of the flowers.

05: Once you’ve strung the first half of your flowers, thread the needle through the remaining half from the opposite direction (from stem to stamen) until your desired length is achieved.

06: Knot each end with a pair of butcher’s knots to secure the flowers and then finish based on your purpose. For a lei or circlet, tie the two ends together flush with each other. For my bracelet I tied on a pair of clasps and left the rest of the ribbon loose. This would be a great time to pull out the ribbon tips I used in the drawstring bag project and attached a little drop bead or two.

The finished bracelet is cute but it is a bit of a statement piece–folks are going to notice it–so keep that in mind if you make one for yourself. Ribbons tied and left streaming from various points of the garland would be cute, adding spacer beads would work, too. This could easily be converted to a necklace by attaching a chain (metal or crocheted ribbon) to each end and maybe adding a large-bailed pendant to the center.

The finished garland bracelet.

The finished garland bracelet.

For a home decoration, use flowers of various sizes or string multiple strands, each a little longer than the previous one, and knot the matching ends to a ring or loop. The loop can then be hooked onto hooks on a wall–even used as curtain tie-backs!

What other uses can you think of for this sort of garland?

May Day Baskets

64 Arts

A long-standing practice that has fallen by the way side these days is the practice of giving flowers to friends and neighbors on the first of May.

Feel like being a bouquet bandit this year? Wrap small bunches of flowers (wild or hot-house, whatever floats your boat) in cones of colored paper, large doilies or even in small (or big, if you’re feeling generous) baskets. Prep them either the night before or the morning of May 1st and then head out to your lucky friends and leave the gifts on their front steps or hanging from their door knobs.

You can leave a note, of course, but you can also do it anonymously and keep your friends guessing who might have left them such a wonderful little gift!

Floral Proportionals

64 Arts

I’ve got cakes on the brain right now, but that’s not totally separate from floral arrangements as I will now demonstrate.

Cake for 50, with Flowers for 45

Back when I was still doing a lot of cakes I was contracted to do a small wedding cake for all of about 50 guests. Small cakes are good and bad–fairly quick, no special equipment or ridiculous baking pans required, but they can also look a little small in the reception venue.

This particular cake, shown at left, was a bit dwarfed by the arch behind it and the large table it sat on but the worst part of it was the flowers.

No, that is not an optical illusion or a trick of the camera angle, the floral topper really was 2/3 the height of the cake.

From this I learned a very important lesson: Make sure the florist knows the size of the cake they’re prepping flowers for otherwise you might end up with something grossly mis-matched. It sorta reminded me of my first wedding where the florist (a friend of my mother-in-law to be) had started on the bridal bouquet (silk) before I’d even had a chance to talk with her. The flowers, if left unchecked, would have been wider than me (not a joke, I was much thinner back then)!

But it’s not just cakey applications where size matters! Think about your dinner table the next time you have guests over. If you plop a huge centerpiece in the middle, the folks across from one another won’t be able to see or easily talk to one another–not a good thing! Well, unless it was me and my (now) former mother-in-law. Same goes for overly scented flowers: while taste is technically a skill of the taste buds, the nose works in tandem with them and strong flowers can overpower the flavor of food.

So, the tall and the short of it is–Harmony. You want your flowers to match your setting, to complement it.

Just because flowers are a man’s way of making up for one transgression or another, doesn’t mean they are a band-aid for everything.

Fun with Flowers

64 Arts

Now that we’ve covered some flower basics and touched on some selective flower meanings it’s time to talk about making them look pretty sitting on your table, desk or counter–more than just being dumped in any old vase.

Containers

It’s great to have a selection of vases around for that unexpected bouquet–even if you’re just picking some up for yourself (I used to do that all the time and think I’ll get back in the habit, again). Of course you save the ones you get with birthday arrangements, Valentine’s gifts and the rest (you do, don’t you?) but what else can you use for a vase?

  • Vases and More

    Potential Vases Collected from Around the House

    Wine glasses

  • Wine bottles
  • Tea Cups or Mugs
  • Small buckets
  • Pitchers
  • Canning jars
  • Test Tubes (with a holder)
  • Toothbrush holders
  • Pen caddies–

Pretty much anything that can hold water can hold a flower or two, too!

Arrangement

An odd number of stems, of colors or heights will add to the visual composition of your arrangement. Why? Well, with even items it’s just too easy for them to hive off in either direction or look boxy. An even number gives you a focal point which the other flowers can cluster around. In other words: Embrace Oddity!

Think about the classic 3-rose bouquet you find in any florist’s reach-in. They may be all the same color and size but they are usually at 2 or 3 heights to make it look nicer–you get to see that there are three separate flowers and each has room to bloom. A larger bouquet of all the same flowers works the same way: by trimming the stems to different lengths and then angling them within the vase we get a nice domed or semi-circle shape that lets all flowers be seen and looks great from all angles. This is especially good for centerpieces.

But enough abstracts, let’s use a real-time example:

  1. Pick a container that will easily hold your flowers–I’ve picked up a small vase and had to start all over when all the stems wouldn’t fit, so dropping them all in to see how they look is totally okay.
  2. Fill half to 3/4 full with fresh water and whatever flower food you have available.
  3. Select one flower to be your focal point. Decide whether it will go in the center or to one side. Trim it to the best height for your vase.
  4. Looking at the rest of your flowers, decide which ones should go around the focal flower first and trim them just shorter than the first flower, enough that the petals sit just below each other. This choice can be made from a color point of view or size–it’s usually best to start large and work your way down to smaller, but there are always exceptions to every rule.
  5. Place each set of flowers into the vase, sorta weaving them stems around one another to keep each layer in place. Use corners or edges to your advantage to angle a flower in the direction you want it to go instead of letting it float around.

The first flower's tough to position, but it's good to get an idea for how high you want your arrangement.

The second set of flowers is a head shorter than the first flower.

The third level of flowers goes in...

The rest is just filling in the "holes." With full flowers you don't even need any extra greenery!

It’s really just that simple.

Helping Hands

There are a number of floral helpers out there and many you can replicate at home.

Oasis is a (usually) green foamy material that soaks up tons of water and you can stick your flowers into it to keep them in a very specific arrangement. This usually gets used in an opaque or covered container since it’s not very pretty to look at.

Floppy stems are sometimes a problem, especially with sunflowers and very full roses. I don’t see wires used as much, these days, instead I’m seeing more plastic tubes on the upper section of stem as additional support. Clear drinking straws can be used in their place for all but the thickest of stems; either slide it on from the bottom or make a slit along the length of the straw and wrap it around the side like a neck brace.

Frogs aren’t just for your garden! Some are made to go in the bottom of your vase and have little spaces that help hold your flowers in place and some are more like lids or inserts that fit just inside the top of your vase and provide a grid in which to place your flowers so they don’t slide to one side or another. These are great for simple, streamlined arrangements like tulips in an oblong vase or something. In a pinch, though, you can replicate it with clear tape laid out in a grid across your vase–just leave enough space for the stems to fit between the tape!

Sand, glass beads and rocks can also help keep your flowers in place.

If you use something less than attractive inside your vase, it’s not a bad idea to take some fabric, wrapping paper or tissue and wrap it around the vase to pretty it up.

Go forth, arrange! Fill your house with flowers in pretty containers and brighten up your space. Have fun!