Soldering + Glass + Pearls = Homecoming Corsage and Boutonniere : : Tutorial

Another high school dance has come and gone and guess what ... the corsage and boutonniere still look as good as the night they were worn!

You may remember this post last year when I announced to my son Corry and his girlfriend Dylan that I was pretty much done purchasing flowers for the dances when I discovered that they take them off when they get to the dance anyways!

This is what this years handmade "flowers" looked like. Of course they would be soldered ... that seems to be what I'm into these days and if I say so myself ... I think they turned out pretty fab!

Here's what I did:

Using tinned copper wire, I first created a large heart shape and then another loop, just to make it look a bit abstract.
Then using fine silver wire I strung fresh water pearls, glass beads and some silver beads, twisting each bead in place on the wire.
Next I wrapped the thin wire around the heart shaped tinned copper.

After the heart shape was wrapped, I wrapped the curly ends and then went back and secured the center area. (Notice that at this point the red floss in the middle is gone ... since I was designing as I was going, not all the photos are super accurate and things change and I forget to re-shoot some steps.)

Next I glued a little square of text from a Bible onto a 1" square of glass and then glued a little red heart onto the text.
Then I soldered just the top and bottom edges of the glass squares.

And to anchor the wired heart to the glass, I soldered just a small spot at the top.

Then sandwiched the wired bundle between the 2 glass squares and then soldered the outer edges several times.

And to finish off the corsage, I cut a portion out of large jump and then soldered them to the sides.

Then I finished it off with a couple of lengths of cream rayon ribbon to wrap around the wrist then tied.

The boutonniere was of course, much simpler. First I made a heart with the tinned copper wire, then wrapped the beaded silver wire around the shape.
Next, I soldered the center to secure the shape.