Monday, January 2, 2012

Christmas - Day 8

I have finished the Brooch Bouquet, but will post some of the steps over the next few days...With working 2 jobs, the wedding crafts and a few commissions, I hope you can understand why my time has been limited on the blog. Anyway, onward...

Making the BB was fun, challenging and rewarding. I started by purchasing a number of brooches over the summer/fall months. Some were basic designs, while others had specific meaning for my sister. All were pretty much rhinestone/white crystal in style. If you haven't guessed by now, we are continuing with our "Winter Wonderland" theme :-)


Once together, I began to wire the brooches and tape them with florist tape. Make sure you wire well and tight. Sagging brooches do NOT sit well in the bouquet.
I also had a few powder puffs of light, icy blue material to include as "filler" (Note: some people use a silk hydrangea as their base which I wanted to do but couldn't get that proper ice blue color)

After all are wired it is a matter of trying to assemble them in a pleasing bouquet: hold in one hand and add and move brooches around with the other.
My advice here is to try and get brooches that are similar in size; I had some that were 4" across and others 1" across. That is too much of a difference as the larger ones then look too flat. I started and stopped this process about 4 times until I finally got a shape that was working for me. It takes patience, so don't despair if it doesn't come together on your first go around.

Below is a shot of the bouquet from the underside (with a bit of florist tape holding it together) I eventually built up the handle and finished it completely with the tape.
You may notice some of my "tools" in this pic. My wonderful husband suggested using his hemostats from his first aid kit to help pull through wire,material etc. They worked wonderfully! They may stay with me now and I will have to get him some new ones!


More tomorrow.....

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