Sculptural DIY Ribbon Rose Brooch

This winter has been bizarrely (and beautifully) mild for us - the lake never fully froze, so a warm day plus a windy night usually means we wake up to open water, which is a magical sight in the winter!  I'm feeling pretty confident that winter won't drag on because I swear that I can smell spring in the air.

To celebrate spring's imminent return, my Mom and I spent a sunny afternoon crafting and made a bunch of sculptural ribbon rose brooches.  They have me dreaming about gardening and I'm thinking that I might finally do a little landscaping this year to bring our sad lawn in order!  I hope it's as easy as making these faux blooms...

If you'd like to make your own, statement-making ribbon rose brooch, here's how!

Supplies:

• Wire edged ribbon
• Carpet (or other heavy duty) thread
• Needle
• Scissors (to cut through wire and ribbon)
• Faux stamens (I used red and matte black)
• Buckram or crinoline
• Felt scrap (optional)
• Pin backing

You can make these ribbon roses with or without the stamens - they look cute either way.  It's easier to make one without, so I'd recommend trying one with just ribbon and then once you have the hang of it, make another with the stamens. 

How to Make Ribbon Roses:

If you're going to add the stamens, bunch them together loosely and then loop the thread and needle through, like so:

Cut a length of wire edged ribbon.  The length will determine how lush the finished rose is; we used about 50 inches of ribbon.  Similarly, the width can vary; ours range from 1.5-2" wide.  If it's a variegated ribbon, decided which shade will be the inside/outside of the rose.  For the pale aqua one shown below, the white forms the inside of the rose. 

Fold the end of the ribbon over, toward you, so that it over hangs by about 1/2 an inch:

Anchor the stamens by sewing them onto this folded over edge, like so:

Then fold the folded portion of the ribbon in half again, and then once again again, starting to roll toward the left:

Here's a look at these first steps again, without the stamens, so you can see more clearly:

Rolling the ribbon this way will form the center of the rose, and hide the tail end.  Once you've started the roll, anchor it onto a strip of buckram with a few stitches.  You can secure with a straight pin to keep it in place while you hand stitch the ribbon.

Tuck the tail of the ribbon underneath and make a few more stitches to start the rose shape:

With the center of the rose secured, it's time to start shaping the rose.  The first step is to gather the wire so the ribbon becomes ruffly.  This takes some coaxing and you have to work gently.  Pull the wire out from the inside edge of the ribbon and start to push the fabric back along the wire, toward the center of the rose.

When you're done, the wire will look like this:

Now coax the gathered wire around the center of the rose, shaping a loose flower.  Fiddle with the arrangement a bit, until it looks perfect (or perfectly imperfect).  You can make some folds here and there to mimic petals.

Then simply stitch the ribbon onto the buckram to hold the rose shape in place.  Don't worry about messy stitches - they will get hidden at the end:

When you're done, trim the buckram:

The finished rose should look like this!

To make the back prettier, we've got a plan involving some fancy brass discs but you can also just stitch on some felt and sew on a pin backing.

And it's that easy!  There are so many different varieties of ribbon roses - and other flowers and leaves - but this is my favorite method because it looks so sculptural.  Obviously I love the aqua, and the tiny pop of red stamens makes it look so retro.  I can't wait to wear this with a summery white dress.  I can't wait for summer, period.

We made a teal version too, with black stamens, which is actually pretty wearable even with winter attire (although my coat crushes it a bit and it requires a bit of re-shaping).  The moodier teal pairs well with my predominantly grey, black, and camel winter wardrobe.

Although you can use any wire edge ribbon, I think it looks prettiest with variegated colours - the ombre ribbons just add more depth, but that's a purely personal preference.

I quite obviously chose the colours for the two above, despite making a concerted effort to choose something that wasn't aqua.  My Mom has an impressive ribbon stash and I definitely considered some pretty pinks but in the end I succumbed to my turquoise-loving ways.  There was a lot to choose from and I panicked...

If these flowers seem familiar, it might be because my Mom made some to adorn the fabric covered box I made to collect cards on our wedding day.  My Mom made a cluster of ribbon flowers to jazz it up.  My Mom has also topped special gifts with these ribbon flowers, for a thoughtful touch.  She is incredibly talented at making a parcel or gift look beautiful.

I'm trying to convince my Mom to make these for sale in our Etsy shop because they would be so pretty pinned to bridesmaid's dresses or prom dresses.  We could make smaller flowers as barrettes for little girls.  I even have some super modern home decor ideas for these blooms...  

How to Re-String (or Make) a Necklace

A few summers ago, I found this coral necklace at a yard sale for a buck!  I loved the length, but hated that the coral was strung on a ratty cord that ended in a knot.

It didn't look polished and even though I gave it a good wash, I totally grossed myself out thinking about how much neck sweat was trapped in that cord, so I never wore it.  I finally decided to re-string it and add a clasp.

Here's how to re-string a necklace (it's super easy!):

Supplies:

• Necklace to re-string (or beads for a new project)
• Beadalon brand coated wire
• 2 crimp beads
• Clasp (this magnetic one is cool)
• Crimp pliers (a good investment if you'd like to make your own jewellery)
• Wire cutters or scissors
 

Steps:

String a crimp bead onto the coated wire and then add one end of the clasp.  Thread the wire back through the crimp.  Using the small indentation in the crimp pliers, bend the crimp into a "C" shape.  If you don't have crimp pliers, you can buy a small crimp and just squash it flat with needle nosed pliers, but using the crimp pliers creates a tidier, more secure closure.  Occasionally, a squashed crimp would fail, which is why I finally invested in this tool. 

Using the larger indentation of the crimp pliers, fold the "C" shaped crimp bead onto itself, clamping it tightly.

Then, simply string on your beads, burying the end of the bead wire in the necklace.

When you get to the end, thread on a crimp bead and the other half of the clasp.  Pull the coated wire through a few beads and pull tightly.  Trim the end of the wire and bury the tail in the necklace.

Repeat the process for securing the crimp bead, and you're done!

With this simple technique, you can make striking necklaces and bracelets from scratch, or re-work pieces you own, in minutes! 

A note about coral: Coral is a marine invertebrate that lives in colonies.  These colonies form a hard skeleton and the skeleton of this sea creature is what is used for coral jewellery.  Coral is important to marine life but is being harvested indiscriminately, which is a serious problem and could lead to depletion.  This is why coral jewellery can be unethical to wear and I was conflicted about purchasing this piece.  Truthfully, I'm not sure if my necklace is real or faux, but it seems a waste not to enjoy it.  I bring this up because the use of coral is problematic, so to ignore this issue would be irresponsible on my part.  If you're interested, you can read more about coral here.   

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DIY Aquamarine Tassel Necklace

In May I felt the urge to make some jewellery but because I'm trying my best to budget, I vowed to steer clear of the craft stores and use supplies I already have.  Luckily I found some gems in my stash (haha): pretty aquamarine chips, to be specific, plus some filigree bead caps from a pair of vintage chandelier earrings.  I lit a fire on a chilly afternoon, turned the music up loud enough to drown out honking geese, and plonked down at the dining table (facing the lake, naturally).  After an afternoon of blissful crafting, I felt so recharged!  Plus I have a sweet new necklace to wear with summer tops and dresses (or, if I'm being honest, the black t-shirt/grey cardi combo I lived in all spring).

This necklace was really simple to make!  If you're feeling crafty, I've listed all of the supplies I used below, but you can use any kind of beads or stones.

Supplies:

Aquamarine chips (but they don't need to be chips - these faceted ones are even prettier)
Gold eye pins
Flat filigree bead cap - needs places to affix the dangling chains for the tassel
A second, more spherical bead cap - should be smaller than the flatter bead cap
Pearl or other bead to fit inside the second bead cap (optional, you could skip the centre chain)
Needle nosed pliers
Wire cutters (or use the cutter on your pliers)

A note about the supplies: the number of beads and eye pins you require will depend on how long you'd like your necklace, and how big of a tassel you'd like.  For my project, I used approximately 200 eye pins and stone chips.  You will inevitably squash some eye pins and some stone chips won't have evenly drilled holes, so buy a little bit more than you think you'll need.

Steps:

Grab an eye pin, slide on a aquamarine stone bead, trim the wire, and form a loop (see this post of mine for a clear tutorial on loop-making).  Before you gently close the loop with your pliers, slip on the loop from the next eye pin.

Repeat a zillion times until you've formed a chain long enough to slip over your head (or you can stop and add a clasp for a shorter necklace at any point).

For the tassel, I used an eye pin, two bead caps, and a pearl.  It's easy: thread the pearl onto an eye pin, then add the smaller bead cap, and then the larger.  This will form the base for the tassel.  I was overzealous and already started to make my tassel before I snapped a photo, so here is the same idea with a glass bead instead:

Next, create a series of smaller chains, using the steps above.  Dangling from my pearl - the centre of the tassel - is a chain with five stones.  On the smaller bead cap are a series of chains with 6 stones each, hooked onto the edges of the cap.  For the largest bead cap, I have chains with 7 stones.  This way, the lengths of the chains are very similar.  But you can shake things up.  As I finished each mini strand, I simply hooked it onto the edge of the filigree bead cap and gently closed the loop - so it's key that your bead cap has a place to affix the beaded chains.

When it's completed, the tassel looks like this:

For the ends of the tassel chains you can use a straight pin so you don't end with a loop, but I didn't have any so I just used eye pins.  I seriously just ordered a pricey planter from Modernica, but didn't want to spring for straight pins.  I penny pinch in the weirdest ways.

My Mom was kind enough to snap a photo of me wearing my fancy new necklace...

But then all of a sudden she was wearing it.  I think I might be making a second one...

I'm really quite besotted with aquamarine  - no surprise, given my penchant for mint and aqua - and I'm so happy I finally found a use for these beads!  I've been hoarding them since 2009 (I'm hanging my head in shame).

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