Making flower vines

I was going to have this as part of another post but decided this is better as a stand alone tutorial as there are many potential uses for this technique.  The next post will show you how I used the flower vine I made here.

To make the vine, estimate how long you want your vine to be.  The main wire should be about 2.5X this length.  I went with about 50 cm long.  Using something about the right width (a pen or pencil are ideal), create a series of loops roughly evenly spaced along the wire.

Each of these loops will become leaves, so now shape them as you wish.  The easiest way to get a leaf shape is to gently pinch the top.  Of course if you are a botanist, feel free to go and google the species you wish to mimic and shape your leaves accordingly.

Now use your medium of choice to fill in the shapes.  I went with Mod Podge Dimension Magic but in this post I investigate several different materials you can use.

Let this dry and (if you used a transparent filler as I did) use a permament to colour in the leaves.  The layer may be very thin- be careful not to make holes, but if you do (or if you feel it is too thin anyway), add another layer of medium.

Flowers are made in a similar way to leaves.  It is best to make each flower from a separate piece of wire (about 20 cm is a good length).  I used a slightly smaller diameter stick to make four loops very close to each other for the petals and sometimes also added a leaf or two to the remaining length

Now to put it all together.  Take the main length of leaves and double them over.  Start at the bottom and gently twist them together.  At intervals, add the flower wires and incorporate them into the main stem as you twist.

Continue the length of the main wire.

You can trim any stray bits of wire if you wish.  You may also want to wrap florist tape around the 'stem' to hide the wires and make it a bit more natural looking.  This is also a good idea if you plan on using this length of wire as jewellery or a hair decoration as those little ends of wire may try to poke the wearer otherwise!

I love the transparent effect you get using permanent markers.  The depth of colour can be increased by using multiple layers of your clear filling material (a good idea for strength anyway) and colouring each layer as you go.  Or get fancy with a fine tipped pen for further detail, similar to the painting on stained glass windows in old churches.

Somewhere in the distant future I plan on playing with this more to make some jewellery but if you beat me to the punch, I'd love to see!  Leave a comment or shoot me an email.