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.