5 Orange Potatoes » herbarium

Acorn Jewlery

5 Orange Potatoes — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:15:10 +0000

One of the most beautiful finds in nature, to me, is the acorn. Acorns are so whimsical with those cute little caps and the crafting possibilities are endless with them! Don’t they make the most perfect little pocket to hold more of nature’s little treasures?

To make a pendant you need: acorn caps (the really big Burr Oak acorn caps work great because they are so big, but any acorn cap will do), Tacky glue (school glue shrinks too much as it dries), dried and/or pressed plants and flowers, hemp cording, hand drill and eye screws (optional). To make them, fill the cap with glue and place your chosen treasure in the glue before it dries. Set it aside upright to dry for a few days.

The glue tends to shrink as it dries and pulls the pressed flowers inside the cap a little. You could always put a little pebble into the cap before filling it with glue, then add the glue and gently place the pressed flower on top. The pendants that worked the best for us are the ones with the flower heads stuffed into the glue. Calendula, bergamot, and red clover blossoms are our favorite pendants. Stuffing the cap with lavender, feverfew and chamomile worked nicely too. We made our herb pendants scented by adding a couple drops of lavender essential oil to the flowers after the glue dried.

After the glue dries attach the pendant to the cording. Here, I drilled holes using a hand drill and screwed in eye screws found at any hardware store.

Another way to attach the cording is to leave the stem on and tie the cording around it. Dab a little glue onto the knot to enforce the hold.

Araina’s favorite acorn pendant has a red clover inside! Enjoy!

Waxing Flowers for Preservation

5 Orange Potatoes — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:12:51 +0000

In the 1840’s, paraffin began to be produced in quantity as a by-product of the petroleum industry, and ladies soon discovered that they could preserve fresh flowers and leaves by coating them with this inexpensive substance (hmmm, the beginnings of the petroleum addiction?). Bridal bouquets and funeral wreaths, wax-dipped and glass-covered, were favorite parlor decorations of the “Age of Sentiment,” cherished for the memories they evoked. (Info from Making Gifts from Oddments and Outdoor Materials by Betsey B. Creekmore)

In the tradition of the Victorian waxed flower bouquets the Little Ladies and I had to try this method of preservation out! We picked all different types of flowers and leaves to see which would work best. The feverfew, daisy and echinacea did not work very well at all; you need more thick fleshy type petals that can withstand the hot wax.

*Pick a cool rainy summer day for this activity; it will warm up the kitchen quickly!

What you need: soy wax, beeswax or paraffin, (I used soy) fleshy petal flowers (zinnia, tulips, lily, orchid, rose), clothespins, double boiler to melt wax, wax paper, narrow-necked glass bottles, candy thermometer (optional)

Steps: Melt the wax until it shows a temperature of about 130 degrees on a candy thermometer (or just wait until all of the wax melts). Remove the pan from the heat. Hold the flower by its stem and dip it into the wax, I used clothespins to prevent my fingers from getting burned. Dip the flower into the wax, deep enough to cover its entire head.

Then lift the flower immediately and shake it over the pan to remove excess droplets. Separate and straighten the petals to your liking before the wax dries.

Stand the flower upright in a narrow-neck bottle until the wax has hardened. Don’t let the flowers touch each other or they will stick together. Let them dry and re-dip if you wish. You will notice that the wax catches in the nooks and crannies of the petals and will leave a thick waxy area. Blot these places carefully to rid of the excess wax.

The lily and orchids kept their colors really well after waxing. The wax just seemed to soften them a bit. Here they are before:

Zinnias lose their color when waxed but they created a really pretty wood appearance. Here they are before the waxing:

And after:

Don’t just try flowers, try deciduous leaves. We also tried acorns, pinecones and grass heads full of seeds. It was really fun. Now to go make a garland of waxed leaves to hang across our bow window. Enjoy!

And after:

Queen Anne’s Lace Paperweight

5 Orange Potatoes — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 03:27:44 +0000

I believe that Queen Anne’s Lace is just too pretty to ignore. This beautiful flower had to be preserved and used in this nature crafty family.

I dyed the flowers in many different colors, since QAL dyes so well. Then I tried pressing the entire flower. This was a little difficult because many of the florets were crushed, no matter how hard I tried to press them all down perfectly.

So then I tried pressing each floret individually. This was a bit more time consuming, but worth it.

After a few days in the flower press, they were ready to use. They pressed perfectly!

Now, what to do with these pressed lovelies; I made a paperweight. I used a 1 part glue to 2 part water solution, then decoupaged the florets onto a rock.