Last week I listed my first ever bridal bouquet in my Etsy shop and promised via Facebook to share the backstory. The truth is, this bouquet started out as a kitschy glass bonsai arrangement that I found in a thrift store. These little trees became popular during the 1960s -1970s and sometimes cost hundreds of dollars depending on the size of the tree and number of flowers.
The arrangement itself wasn't so bad, but I thought I could make some cool hair accessories with the flowers...I hadn't seen anything made with glass flowers before, so I wanted to try something new.
It took all my strength to cut the flowers apart. You can not imagine the amount of wire I had to cut through. Each individual petal has a thin wire embedded in it...to make up the flowers, the wires are gathered and twisted together into stems...the larger the flower, the thicker the wire stem. (Thrifty Tip: This is also one of the ways you can tell if the flowers are vintage or not. Newer flowers have holes drilled in the petals and the wire is simply wrapped through the hole. Older ones have the wire actually embedded in the glass while it is still soft.)
Once I separated the flowers and leaves from the arrangement, I realized how heavy the flowers were. Sadness. They were far too heavy to wear as a hair clip...they would never stay put. I didn't think they would work as a brooch either, so they sat in my studio for a loooong time until it hit me that they might look cool in a bridal bouquet.
I painstakenly cleaned each petal with a q-tip and polished those flowers till they sparkled. Then, I raided my silk flower stash to find flowers that would work with the glass ones and came up with a lavender and gold combo that reminded me of an Etsy treasury I did a few years ago. (That treasury, BTW, happened to land on Etsy's front page...very exciting!!)
Once I had gathered the flowers, the bouquet came together quickly. I love the variety of colors and textures and the surprise of the glass flowers mixed in. It's a playful combo, not too serious...but elegant enough for just about any ceremony.
I do have a few of the smaller buds and some leaves left, so I'm hoping to find the time to turn those into matching boutonnieres. I think as a set, they would be gorgeous.
So that's the behind the scoop on the recycled glass flower bridal bouquet. It is available in my shop for immediate delivery. Click this link for more information: Purple and Yellow Wedding Bouquet. If you are interested in a custom boutonniere to match, let me know. And let me know what you think of my first bouquet! I'd love to hear your comments! Thanks for stopping by and be sure to keep in touch. You can follow along at any of the links below so you don't miss a thing. XOXO, Cindi
