Finished lillies

All the parts for one lily; six petals, one set of stamens, thin wire.

I used the thinner wire to secure and brace all of the petals together in sets, an inner and outer with three petals in each set.

After all six of the petals are secure to teh center, I add a thick floral wire and wrap with floral tape.

The next step is to gently bend each petal back.

In the box above you can see the flowers that will make up the bouquet for my friend; tiger lillies, asters and dogwoods.

daisy headbands

dogwoods

I finally received the beads I was waiting for to create the dogwood blooms for the bouquet. It was surprisingly difficult for me to find just the right color only being able to view the beads online. It seems that bead colors just don't show true over the computer. Anyway, the colors arrived and I began the dogwood making process.

I followed the general pattern for a beaded dogwood bloom from The Art of French Beaded Flowers: Creative Techniques for Making 30 Beautiful Blooms by Carol Benner Doelp . Of course I added my own twists in some places.

Here you can see that I have made all of the petals to be used in the bouquet flowers, but have yet to make the centers.

I left extra wire hanging from the centers and used it as the assmbly wire for connecting all of the petals to create the blooms.

I also made the corsage for Michael's mother out of dogwoods. I used a slightly different colored cream bead instead of the white for the bouquet and a darker green for the center as well as the sepals.

Check previous post to see mother of the bride corsage.

Pink Lillies

These little pink lillies make up the corsage for the mother of the bride. The color doesn't show up exactly right. Even though they look orangey in the pitures they are actually a shiny light pink with purple accent. The stamen are made with amethyst colored swarovski crystal.

Kiss my Asters

Some of you may remember that not too long ago I posted about some asters I had in process. These are going to be used in the wedding bouquet that I am creating. Below you can see the pile I had of all of the petal layers awaiting the centers that I had yet to create.

After we returned from our road trip, the beads I was hoping for had arrived and were waiting for me on the porch. In an evening of relaxing and decompressing from riding in the car I worked diligently on the centers you see posted below. I used a lemon yellow Czech glass bead and 26 gague copper wire. I started with a one bead center and made three passes so I ended with 6 rows per center, leaving the wires.

The next step was to attach the centers to the petals to complete this stage of the flower. I made one center per set of petals. First I bent the remaining wires on the centers so that they were behind the center or perpendicular to the rows of beads.

Next I wrapped the center's wires around the loop of the petals so that the center is now securly attached to the petals.

I turn over the flower to make sure it seems centered enough and then tighten the wires.

Next, I bring all of the wires together so they meet in as close to the center of the flower as possible.


Then holding all of the wires tightly I twist them together to create the stem base.

And viola, a whole bundle of asters ready to be used in the final bouquet.

Next step will be to finish the lillies and then onto the dogwoods, boutineer and mother's corsages.

braced petals

The wedding is getting closer. I'm a little farther behind than I wanted to be at this point but there isn't much I can do about it except keep working steadily. These are images of the stage I most recently completed.

What you see below are a stack of my tiger lily petals and a roll of 32 gauge copper wire.

The wire is very thin and flexible. It is not overly strong but it is perfect for bracing lage petals and giving them more strength. I use a large holed needle on one end of my wire strand which makes it easier to weave through the petals beaded rows.

I choose a spot close to the middle of the petal to place the wire bracing. Then I weave the wire through the rows pulling it out a few inches and leaving a few inch tail. The next step is to weave the in the excess wire on it's corresponding side. I usually try to make the two strands meet in the center back and then twist them together and cut off the extra.

Here's a close up of my needle woven through the rows.