Bells of Ireland Wreath

[bloomtastic]

Take a look at the attached Pic....looks pretty simple to me but looks can be deceiving.

The client says it was on a "form" but I don't see one....would it be possible to just bend a stem or two to create this??? I want to give her the best look for the lowest cost, and I just remember designing a pomander ball once of bells and it was not as easy as I thought it would be.

Ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!!

 

[lori042499]

Take a look at the attached Pic....looks pretty simple to me but looks can be deceiving.

The client says it was on a "form" but I don't see one....would it be possible to just bend a stem or two to create this??? I want to give her the best look for the lowest cost, and I just remember designing a pomander ball once of bells and it was not as easy as I thought it would be.

Ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!!

Looks to me like an 8" oasis ring, with the bells of ireland cut into segments and stuck in all over the place...Bells of ireland are a very thirsty flower, I have had them go limp in funeral sprays on more than one ocassion, don't think they will hold up if just bent into a ring...

 

[aileen_c]

Heather, I was thinking exactly what Lori posted...of course mine was just guessing and it was neat to see Lori post it since she's got MUCH more experience than I. I was gonna say you can see just a peek of the form on the very first wreath on the left side touching the pew. See it??

 

[Lizi]

I agree they are on oasis foam. They are somewhat time consuming. The bells are cut in sections down the stem and then inserted. I is a cool look though.

 

[wildflowerschicago]

I admit, I am afraid of Bells sometimes. They are temperamental wilters...they give me grey hair!

Heather, how did you make the pommander? I have always seen them in magazines, and they are gorgeous...they just scare the crap out of me!

I would love to know how the wreathes are made too.

Would bells stand up to being glued (with corsage glue)? If they could, you could almost glue them to a puffy ribbon wreath form (or beef up a wire wreath form with tulle). Just a thought.

 

[Carrieann]

I agree 8" oasis ring. I do LOVE the look of these. Very nice.

Show us pics of yours when you do them!!

 

[Joe Mioux]

I have never made a wreath out of them.

However, I do use them when making cremation arrangements and I do wire the tip to bring it back around and into the form.

Those stems are pretty strong, wire them with binding wire and draw the stem into the direction of the your desired sized wreath.

joe

 

[CHERYL BAKIN]

Heather:
What is shown in your pic is definately on an Oasis wreath form, with the bels being cut into pieces, and inserted in. Lots & lots of insertions. I have never tried glue on bells in this quantity, so I would want to experiment first before I committed to doing it that way.

I think your 8" wreath estimated dimension is a little small. I would guess at 12" form. (gauging from the size of the pew end, and the size of the wreath). (In my experience, this style of pew end is generally at least 16" to 22" wide).

We have also used Joe's method of wire & bend & shaping of bells, and it could work also. The bending part is a little tricky, and requires patience.....something that I sometimes don't have enough of.

I would rather work on the wreath form, keeping them heavily watered until use the next day.

Good luck!

Cheryl

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

um,
I don't know guys.......

I think you could do this easily enough buy inserting the the bottom of the bell in the wreath, making the insertion very closely parallel to the foam. Then using either dixon pins, very strategical placed or greening pins, you could pin the entire stalk of bells to the form. It would take quite a few bells to do this but a lot less time. It wouldn't require any cutting up of the flower.
Easy mechanics.

If I was given this job, that's how I'd do it.

 

[RWK]

I'm of the consensus that it is indeed built on an oasis form......with the Bells being cut into segments.......just bending the stem is not going to give you that nice uniform look. In one of the older John Henry books, there is a sympathy heart using bells of ireland prepped that way and then accented with blue delphinium florets. I personally love the look of bells done in that manner.

 

[felicityflowers]

um,
I don't know guys.......

I think you could do this easily enough buy inserting the the bottom of the bell in the wreath, making the insertion very closely parallel to the foam. Then using either dixon pins, very strategical placed or greening pins, you could pin the entire stalk of bells to the form. It would take quite a few bells to do this but a lot less time. It wouldn't require any cutting up of the flower.
Easy mechanics.

If I was given this job, that's how I'd do it.

That's exactly how I made some tulip wreaths awhile ago. Just inserted the stem and then wrapped the tulip the direction I wanted it to go and secured with a wire "hairpin". If you click the link, ignore the weird orange cast. The lights in the church were awful!

Those are really pretty...I would have never thought to use bells. And I agree, they are in an oasis wreath form, the ones with the plastic base. I used a 12" base for these...you could get away with much smaller for the bells.