The brooch bouquet: The tutorial

You will need:

Approx 75 brooches (or rings, earrings or anything else you can wire the back of)

Approx 150 Pipe cleaners (2 per brooch)

Approx 75 lengths of gardening wire

Florists tape (I used a roll and a half)

Masking tape

Wide ribbon/Trim to finish (I used white but you can choose any colour you want!)

Pliers

1. Wire the flowers

I'm sure there are loads of different ways of making a brooch bouquet, but this is how I did it! I treated each individual brooch like a separate flower (see above). I made the flowers by taking the wire and (using the pliers) wrapping it around the clasp of the brooch so that it was pretty secure and the length of the wire hung down like a stem. This didn't give enough security and often wasn't tight enough though, so I then wrapped a pipe cleaner around each side of the clasp and then twisted these around the length of the wire, making the stem thicker and more secure. Then just to make the flowers look pretty (and more like flowers!) in case you could see any of the stem once i'd constructed the bouquet, I took the florist tape and used it to completed cover the stem, like to you see above.

Doing this for each of your brooches is a pretty lengthy process and it took me up to 10 minutes to do each one, depending on how fiddly the clasp is. My tip to make this less grueling is to do each "flower" as you buy the brooches, so you don't have to sit down and do 75 all at once.

2. Assemble the bouquet

Once you have your 75 flowers constructed, its time to start putting the bouquet together. This is tricky, especially if you want a traditional rounded shape like I did, so it's best to take it slow to get it right. I started by laying out all the brooches and seeing which ones would fit together nicely. Then I started putting them in little clusters of 3 to 4 brooches to see how they would look. Once I had my little cluster looking good, I twisted the wires of those 3/4 brooches around each other, so that they were secure in the position I wanted them to be, without using any glue. I started with the first cluster I wanted at the top centre of the bouquet and worked down and round.

If anything needed repositioning, or the bouquet was starting to fall flat I turned it upside down and started 'fluffing' it up and pushing the brooches back into the positions I wanted to be in: it's easier that way. What I ended up with was a nice looking bouquet, but with an ugly looking twisted stem.

Depending on the length of wire you use, you might have to shorten your bouquet at this stage I did!) We just used wire cutters to trim though each flower (I got Mike to help with this, as it needed a stronger arm than mine!)

Now is the time for the masking tape! To cover your ugly stem, and give you an even surface for your ribbons, wrap masking tape around the stem as tightly as you can, making the stem as compact and even as possible.

3. Trim your bouquet

This was the bit I found hardest, and i'm not going to give a full tutorial on this, because if you google 'wrap bridal bouquet' you'll find lots of much better video tutorials to follow: that's what I did!! The lace trim around the flowers (which of course you don't have to have but I liked as it added to the vintage feel) was a case of trial and error. I pushed my lace under the flowers and into the position around the bouquet that I wanted. Then using a needle and thick white cotton I stitched it into place: I used the brooches as anchors for this (because I had no other fabric to stitch to!!) and stitched around them and their stems. It seems to have worked well and feels pretty secure.

Et voila! The brooch bouquet is complete!

Sorry I didn't take more photos during the construction process, but I hope that makes sense! Good luck making your own brooch masterpieces!

Love, Tor xxx

NOTE: I'm sure if you didn't mind ruining the brooches there would be a much easier way of doing this, using hot glue. This method just didn't work for me, because a lot of the brooches have sentimental value, and I didn't want to damage them.

My brooch bouquet is finally finished!!

Hi guys,

After months spent gathering brooches, wiring them into individual flowers and arranging them into a bouquet shape (not easy when you're working with metal and wire) my brooch bouquet is finally finished. Woohooo!!!!

I love it, and really don't think it could've turned out any better. It's slightly smaller than I had originally had in mind, but it's soo heavy that I decided it was time to stop, before I couldn't pick it up any more!

My original thought was that I would wrap it in blue ribbon: the same colour as the bridesmaids dresses, but I decided that with the coloured aspects in my own outfit it might clash, so I went for the white of my dress instead. I think that was a good decision, and I love the way the vintage lace and pearl trim looks against the vintage brooches.

I've taken photos throughout the process of putting this together, so i'll definitely post a tutorial soon, if you're looking to make one of these yourself.

Love, Tor xx

Brooch bouquet progress update

I'm really excited about the progress we've made on the brooch bouquet; so far we have around 40 brooches wired up like flowers, and I think we only need another 25 or so before I have enough to completely make the bouquet!

I've started putting it together already, just to get an idea of the shape and size. I'm crazy pleased with how it's looking, and think it's definitely comparable to the professionally made ones that i'm modelling it on. The top picture shows how it's looking so far, the bottom picture are the loose brooches I have left to add in. Although actually they aren't just brooches: i've also used scarf rings (that's what the stopped clock is - very Alice in Wonderland!) rings, clip on earrings - anything that had a solid base to hold the wire really!!

I was hoping to spend £1 or less per brooch and complete the make for £75, but haven't ended up anywhere near target: including the ones I didn't buy for myself (because everyone has been great at donating/buying brooches for me!) I think the overall cost will be somewhere between £150 - £200. As my mum pointed out though, the average fresh flower bridal bouquet costs about £150, and this way I get to keep all the brooches and have the amazing, unusual bouquet of my dreams!

I'm definitely not disappointed about going over budget, and can't wait to get it finished and show you guys!

Love, Tor xx

Progress updates: hitting the post office and wiring brooches

Once the Save the Date cards were made I made the envelopes (using silver and black stamps on the front and lining them with a lovely blue paper to match the cards) I'm now writing the envelopes (i'm attempting calligraphy and it's turning out OK!) which believe it or not is the hardest job: I actually don't have anyone's addresses (i'm an email kind of gal!) so gathering all the addresses is taking longer than I thought. We're planning to send these out on Monday though - I can't wait to get them out of the house, and get peoples reactions to them (and then I can show them you guys properly too!) I've also been sat in front of the TV making Thank You cards: these are really simple cards using just two stamps and a ribbon bow, so they didn't take too long to do (unlike our complicated invitation design, which i'm dreading getting started on!!)

The other job i've been working on other the past couple of weeks is starting to put together the brooch bouquet. So far only three brooch "flowers" are complete, but i'm really pleased with how they're looking. I think finding the right brooches is going to be the hardest job, because I really want to use some enamel flowers, and they're difficult to find!

To put them together I have been threading wire around the pin to lock the 'flower' and the 'stem' together. Then for extra security I wrapped a pipe cleaner around each end of the pin. The pipecleaners were then drawn into the middle and twisted all the way down the stem, making it thicker, sturdier, and ensuring the brooch can't fall off. My mum had to show me how to do the next bit: take florist tape and wrap tightly around the stem and create a bulb around the bulk of your pin and wiring work: this makes it look more like a flower, and makes sure none of the pipecleaner will be seen at the end when you put the bouquet together

This is a massive job: so far I only have 3 completed flowers, and the final bouquet will need 75. I haven't quite worked out how these individual flowers will turn into a bouquet yet, but as I have another 72 brooches to source and wire before I have to worry about that, it's a bridge we'll cross when we come to it!

Love, Tor xx