Brooch Bouquet

No, I'm not getting married (durrrr) and no, I did not make this for someone who is getting married. Remember that card line I'm working on at work? Baby & Wedding line? Well. I keep seeing brooch bouquets on Pinterest, so they must be the hip and cool thing right now if you are planning a hipster wedding - and I thought it'd be really cool to make one and then photograph it for a card. 'cept, where the hell do you get 50-60 old gaudy ridiculous brooches??? Your great aunt Ella's. That's where. 

We went up to my parents home town of Weirton, WV this past weekend to celebrate my aunt Janice's 60th birthday! weeeee! love her. It was fun seeing all the fam, and some people who hadn't met Winnie yet, got to.  My uncle wanted me to go over to his mom's (my great aunt Ella's) house and see if I wanted anything. uhhh CHA. So I was looking through her old jewlery and then, JACKPOT!

YOU WILL NEED:

40-60 brooches/pins

floral/craft wire

floral tape

scissors

ribbon (to wrap)

So basically I didn't follow one particular tutorial on how to do this, but I think this one is one of the easiest ones to follow.  Basically you just take a brooch and wrap some wire around the pin part... I'm sure there is some science to this part - but I just wrapped the wire all sorts of ways around each end of the pin until it felt study, it's not pretty, but it works. Then twist the wires from each side all the way down to form the stem. You want to make sure your wire is sturdy enough that the brooch won't droop. Take the floral tape and wrap the stem. I wrapped the pin and the top of the wires (the part that looks like a Y) so that it would look neater. Just an FYI the floral wire is kinda gross to work with, it leaves this weird sticky residue on your hands. ew.

   

So then you do that about 10 billion times and you get this...

And you probably have blistered fingers by now too... cus I do.  I didn't really take any pictures of the next part buuuuuuut you pretty much just arrange the flowers how you want them. I started with one in my left hand and carefully added more with my right hand while holding them in place with my left. Make sense? good. After you've arranged them how you want them to look, get that weird ass floral tape back out and wrap it as tight as you can around all the stems.

(stem wrapped two different views. oooo ahhhh, doesn't it look so puuurrdy!)

Then get your ribbon - or whatever you want to wrap it in.. suggestions: ribbon, twine, wire, burlap, fabric. tulle, beaded wire, cat hair, lace, pretty much anything you want. 

I used ribbon because I'm so elegant..... 

I used another pin to secure my ribbon at the end (do you see it?) but you can just dab some hot glue there and you are good to go!

aannnd view from the top!

I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial, no go! make brooch bouquets! or watch tv. whatevs.

Me & Le Brooch Bouquet!