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Flowers make a wonderful gift for any special occasion. But many people feel bad when the blossoms begin to fade. By preserving some of the blooms, you can create a piece of jewelry that keeps meaningful flowers looking beautiful for years to come.
You can make dried floral jewelry for yourself using flowers you received as a gift. Drying the flowers is a way to extend their life so that you can enjoy their beauty and remember the special person who gave them to you.
Pressed floral jewelry is also a thoughtful gift for someone who loves flowers or gardening. Floral jewelry is an excellent choice for birthdays, Christmas or Hanukkah. It also makes a lovely gift for Mother’s Day, an anniversary, or to say “congratulations”. A handcrafted piece of floral jewelry will be appropriate for any celebration or just to say “I love you”.
The process for creating floral jewelry begins with pressing the flowers. Choose blooms that are vibrant and unblemished. Flowers from your own garden would make an especially personal and meaningful gift.
There are several methods for pressing flowers. Special presses that are designed for the microwave flatten the blossoms and remove moisture at the same time. Depending on the type of flower, this process may take only a few minutes.
There are also traditional manual presses that slowly wick away moisture from blooms using pressure and weight. One time-tested example of this type of pressing is to place flowers between the pages of a heavy book. Other types of presses require tightening a handle or screw to increase the pressure. This process can take several weeks but yields reliable results.
Once you have dried your flowers, there are many options for creating jewelry. Craft stores and large retailers usually carry all the supplies you will need. There are a variety of kits available with glass or acrylic pieces and bezel wire. Bezel wire is a narrow, pliable strip of metal that is used to hold the glass or acrylic together by binding the edges tightly.
You can often find kits with either transparent front and back pieces (glass or acrylic) or a solid metal backing in which to place the flowers. The preserved flowers are sandwiched between two layers to protect them and give them a framework for attaching to jewelry findings. These kits commonly feature metal in a silver or copper color and many have attached hardware through which a chain or ear wire can pass.
Perhaps you have a locket with special meaning and would like to place pressed flowers inside. You can coat the flowers with glue to hold them in place as well as to strengthen the fragile blooms. When choosing a glue for this project, read the label to be sure it is suitable for use on metal.
For experienced crafters, encasing dried flowers in resin is a popular way to preserve them. This involves pouring a two-part epoxy into a mold with preserved flowers. Resin can accommodate flowers that are more three-dimensional than pressed flowers. The finished resin baubles can be used as a pendant, drop earrings, or on a charm bracelet.
An advantage to using resin is that it allows the flowers to be seen from every angle. You may also see tiny bubbles in the resin as part of the design. This gives an ethereal look to transparent or lacy flowers.
There are many options for making dried floral jewelry, whether you are new to crafting or an experienced artisan. Whichever method you choose, the final result will be a unique piece of jewelry that will remind the recipient of someone special whenever they wear it.
