Flowers, Brooches & Mother's Day

*****Warning.....Mum - please don't peek at  this blog post  *****

(at least until after Sunday!)

It seems the days are getting longer at last - hooray!   And we have had a few bright & sunny days this week which certainly lifts the spirits and promises Spring is... well, 'springing'. 

It's great to see more & more little flowers peeping out between the bare dirt & dry stick stems in the garden  (I do hope all our 'perennials' come back... we planted so many last year) and today I watched a blackbird hurrying to & fro with clusters of twigs in his beak before disappearing into one of the bushes (he must be preparing a nest so I'll have to keep an eye out for it).

After pancake day (a mild disaster with 'shake in the jug' stuff in our house... never again!) and a birthday or two we are now 'March'-ing towards Mother's Day and I can't quite believe the sheer quantities of 'stuff' in the shops to 'help' you celebrate. Now that even the supermarkets are selling homewares with a 'homemade' look it renders making anything unique a bigger challenge than ever.  However, if you are of a mind to make something of a beady nature I may have just the thing....

Yes, I know... I have been inspired by flowers again (well, how can you not be?!)  and at first I was going to sew something useful but, actually, my Mum is much better at that than me. I really wanted to make something sweet & lovely....like my mum :-) and that would maybe give her something to wear on the big day.  I've settled for this frivolous little 'posy' brooch which will be wrapped in tissue and popped in a little organza bag right after this post is done!

I've written up the steps for you if you want to try it and all you really need is your trusty jewellery pliers, a brooch back finding, some colour coated craft wire (I used 0.6mm) and some flowers/leaves of your choosing - oh,  and maybe a little butterfly bead.  

Got all that?  Ok, now just follow these steps...

1)  Cut several short lengths of wire ready for your flower 'stems' (around 10cm each should do it).  Then take each one in turn and make a tiny coil on one end with just the very tip of your round nose pliers.

2) Now slip a flower onto each 'stem' so that the coils sit in the center of the flowers. 

3) Then bend the wires at right angles underneath each one (this will stop the flowers sliding back down the stems).

 4)  Cut a couple of pieces of wire long enough to thread through a couple of leaves and twist the wires underneath (as shown)

5)  Now cut a further piece of wire and make a small coil on the end and thread on a tiny butterfly bead.

6) Bend the wire underneath as before then use your round nose pliers to make a few 'kinks' in the wire underneath the butterfly.

 7) When all the flowers & leaves & the butterfly are ready gather them into a small bunch and wrap an extra length of wire tightly around the middle 2-3 times to hold them together.

8)  At the back, thread the brooch finding onto the wire ends and bend the wires outwards.

9)  Wrap the wire ends around the stems and the brooch finding neatly and tuck or trim the ends in.

9) To finish off simply use your round nose & flat nose pliers to coil all the ends of the 'stems' that are hanging down under the wire wrapping.

10)  Give the flowers and coils a gentle primping and you are ready to gift :-)


This simple technique could be used with other sorts of beads such as different sized crystals to make a sparkly spray so don't think it has to be just flowers - you can pretty much use any sorts of beads or even buttons.

Enjoy Making xxx