A while back I saw a workshop advertised to make a bouquet of wire flowers, intrigued I looked into it further and finally decided to book myself on it as what’s the worst that could happen? I’d thought that they might make a good garden display, but I was wrong about that - they’re too delicate for that, but with thicker wire something similar would absolutely work for outside.
So last month I spent a morning with people I’d never met before making a vase of wire flowers. And yes, I’ll admit they can look like a jumble of wires, or a two dimensional pencil squiggle; but it was great fun and it’s really not too much of a challenge to look past the wire jumbles.
I was clearly quite prolific at my wire twiddling and twisting! Like many great ideas this was relatively simple and didn’t need much equipment. All that was needed was some wire (we used 22 gauge at the workshop) and something to wind it around.
The somethings to wind it around were of differing sizes and ranged from wooden dowels to ring sizers - and they were all effective, but I think there’s things we have around the house (and garden) that could be used - wooden spoons, cotton reels and even a garden dibber would all work equally well. The key thing I think is to have different sizes to provide variety for your squiggles!
I didn’t think I’d want to make my own wire flower with beads, but actually my green version below is one of my favourite shapes I made - and in case you’re wondering the double beads were stuck together, so I just went with it. This was the last flower type we made at the workshop, which following plenty of chat from everyone there ran over so it was quickly twisted into shape - but I’d definitely do more, though if I’m using thicker wire I’ll need bigger beads, but I’ll cross that bridge when the time comes (if it does).
The seed heads were also high on my list of favourites, a simple shape to replicate and one that would look great in a thicker wire for the garden.
And this one is simple too - just lengths of wire secured in the middle with the ends twiddled around to replicate the shapes we see in nature.
The whirly twisty fillers were incredibly satisfying to make - and I seem to have got a few of these, in many sizes!
There were more typical flower types too, but the ones above are the favourites amongst those I made, and would be the ones I’d look to make in a thicker wire for the garden - but that probably won’t be this year. It’s definitely one to remember though.