Selling on Etsy is a competitive business and so I am always looking to expand and introduce new lines which in order to appeal to a wide array of people. My recent obsession, which I feel is fitting for Spring, is flowers and terrariums.
In my last post I mentioned how I had been foraging for wild flowers to use in my jewellery. Since my last post I have been pressing the flowers in preparation and thought I would take the opportunity to share how I did this with you.
In order to press flowers you will need a few things:
> Flowers
> Two large, heavy books
> Kitchen roll
First things first, prepare your flowers by discarding any parts you don't want and trimming stems etc.
Then you'll need your book and your kitchen roll; open the book to around the centre, tear off two sheets of kitchen roll (leaving them attached together) and sit them into the spine of the book.
Once you've done all that arrange your flowers on the kitchen towel, ensuring they are flat and nicely laid out as you don't want them folded and creased.
When you're happy with your arrangement fold over the other sheet of kitchen roll on top and close the book - it's as simple as that.
Once the book is closed place the other heavy book on top to weight it down. You should then leave your flowers to press for 7-10 days.
I left my flowers for around 7 days, mainly because I grew impatient. They all turned out fairly well; some had to be discarded because they went brown but that was only one type of flower. The only thing now is that I have no idea what to do with my flowers, but I'm sure I'll think of something when I'm playing around.
To make your own terrariums you will need:
> Glass bottles and corks
> Sand/dirt
> Moss
> Eye pin and necklace chain
> Glue
> Tweezers
> Charms, crystals, shells (optional)
They are really easy and quick to make. First of all take you glass bottle and fill with a thin layer of sand/dirt in the bottom; I aimed for this to take up around 1/4 of the bottle. Next separate out your moss out and using the tweezers push into the bottle - I used moss that was completely dried out to avoid condensation issues. Either before or after adding the moss you can add charms, crystals or anything else you wish. I made bottles which also had layers of raw amethyst, had small charms like keys or arrows, and with shells I had collected the day before. Once you're happy with you're terrarium put a small amount of glue around the cork and fix it in the top of the bottle. When the glue has dried you can screw in your eye pin, if you wish to make it into a necklace or even a keyring.
The ones pictured will soon be available to purchase in the Etsy shop but I'm currently in the process of moving house so you'll have to be patient with me there. In the mean time you can keep track of everything I'm up to on Facebook and Instagram and if you have any questions then please leave a comment. Hope you enjoyed the post and found it helpful.
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