This Make-at-Home is inspired by The Gallery’s current exhibition, Trace, and by the forthcoming workshop Josie and I will be running at Artison, titled Jewellery: Inspired by Vintage.
The paper flower in this blog is simple, quick and best of all, can be made from all sorts of papers (including vintage ones!). I have adapted the original instructions I had, to make the paper flower into a unique ring, which takes less than 30 minutes to make, and can be made almost entirely out of recycled bits and pieces.
You will need:
paper – for each ring, you need 5 squares of equal size. I have made quite an extravagantly large ring, and the paper I used was about 5cm square. Bear in mind, the smaller the paper, the more fiddly the job!
Wire – basic jewellery wire to make the ring. about 0.5mm thickness will be fine.
A bead or button – not too big.
scissors
glue/double-sided tape
Step one – take one of your paper squares and fold in half diagonally to make a triangle. Then, fold up the two base corners of the triangle towards the peak of the triangle (see image two) to make a square.
Once you have done this, fold the same two points down, so that the folded edge will lie exactly on top of the edge of the square. Then, open up the little flaps you have just made, and flatten them (image 3).
Fold down the top triangular point of each of the flattened flaps. Fold the flattened flaps inwards (image 2 below)
.Using either glue or double-sided tape (for less mess), roll the two folded flaps towards each other, and stick them together down the middle. You should end up with a little paper florets with a few folds of paper inside (3rd image below)
Make four more of these!
Once you have made all five florets,start sticking them together. Apply a stripe of glue/tape down the side of each florets and glue to the next florets in the same place. Keep going until all five are stuck together (they should naturally be forming a flower shape as they are glued) then glue to two end florets together.
That’s the paper flower done! Now to make it into a ring…
Take a length of wire – 6 inches will be more than enough, and thread your chosen bead/button into the middle of the length, then give the two tails of wire a twist together so that the bead stays in place.
Thread the two tails of wire through the centre of the paper flower, so that the bead sits in the little hole in the middle of the paper florets.
If you are making this ring for yourself, divid the two tails of wire, and wrap on around your finger clockwise, the other anti-clockwise, until there is only about 1cm of wire left. If you’re making this for someone else, use a wooden hand mannequin, or the recipient’s hand, so you can get the size right!
To finish off, twist the last 1cm of wire around the side of the ring of wire, and tuck the very end into a gap in the ring, or back up into the paper flower.
All done! For a more professional looking ring, you could always solder the end of the wire to neaten them up…
Thats all from me if you enjoyed this project, then Jewellery, Inspired by Vintage on september 17th, will be right up your street! We’ll be showing you how to make professional looking pieces of jewellery using recycled and vintage materials and objects. To book or for more information, click here.
Rosie
