Burned organza flowers

These beautiful and sophisticated flower have been created for several hundreds of year by "ladies in the know." They used them to create personalized jewlry that coordinated with their lovely gowns....or as one story tell to signal to a particular beau that she was open to his proposal of marriage. Now, it is time for that knowledge to be passed on to the next generation.

Prepare well, ladies...for the burden is great to bear...and the cost...oh the cost... -- well it is actually almost non existent -- but that doesn't go very well with our line about burdens and costs now does it?!??!

Few simple supplies

1.Quarter yard of organza fabrics in 2-3 coordinated colors. I chose to brilliant blues (one dark, one light) a pale pink and an off white. Lots of combinations available for those.

2. A drafters circle template to draw out the multi-tudenous number of circles you will need. Three sizes 1.75 " 1.5" amd 1". Make as many of each as you want to end up with in flowers.

3. tea light candle set on a cookie sheet with a bowl of water near by...yes...we are playing with fire and must remember our fire safety.

4. tweezers

5. Small assortment of beads and beeding needle and thread (coordinated with you color pallate).

6, Green felt to shape the leaves as the base.

Step One:

Cut out all of your circles and shapes

Step Two: Hold each circle close -- without touching the flame -- until the edges begin to melt, curl and crinkle.

Step three: when all the edge has been curled...make a quick pass across the flame with the center....this will make for major crinkles that begin to form the flourishes of the petals. You may get a vew burn spots...but usually they work out to add charm to the flower...once the beads are in place you hardly noticly them at all.

Step Four...stack the three sizes of circles that have now been crinkled on top of each other and select two leaves to serve as the base. With your beading needle, make on stitch through all layers to secure the locations. On the next stitch add one small bead. Repeat four more times. For this size of flower, five beads are definitely enough to form the center.

I can make about 30 flowers in an evening -- once I get the assembly line going. I have found that bright shades mix well with sublte shades that you might not normally think of working together...so have fun experimenting. If you make some -- I would love to see them...put a link into this blog entry to tell us where we can go check them out.

Thanks and I hope you enjoy the process....