How to Create an Autumn Thyme Silk Hand Tied Bouquet

A Little About Me

Autumn Thyme Hand Tied Bouquet

Before we get started with the fun part (the designing), let’s answer a few questions!

WHAT IS A HAND TIED BOUQUET?

A hand tied bouquet is a bouquet that is designed by arranging the flowers  (either fresh or silk) in your hand rather than in a vase or other container.  It can be a bit tricky to master, especially if you have small hands!  Once you get all the flowers arranged, you then tie the stems together.   Bridal bouquets are often hand tied.

Hand tied bouquets are  sometimes called Tussie Mussies or nose gays.  Tussie Mussies date back to the 1400s.  They were small bundles of herbs and flowers, each with a symbolic meaning.  The language of flowers is very interesting topic.  I used herbal symbolism in my wedding.  Perhaps I will dig deeper into the language of flowers in a future post!  I seem to be getting off track!

Hand tied bouquets made of silk flowers are extremely versatile.  They can be used practically anywhere you need a pop of color or to add interest.

THE INSPIRATION

If you have been following me, you may know that I recently completed the very long process of moving from an over 3,000 square foot farmhouse with a number of storage buildings to a 1700 square foot home in Florida.  If you are new to my blog and exploits, more can be found here:

and here:

We recently completed an outdoor addition to our home which has helped with my storage challenges and giving me a place to spread out and design.

Because of my storage issues, I am more focused on reusing my containers and my silk flowers for more than one season.  Some times I will use spray paint to change the look of the flowers and containers.  Last fall I discovered most of my pine pics I needed for a project were still in Illinois so I got creative and used spray paint and my imagination to make pine pics for my project! 

My Autumn Thyme Hand Tied Bouquet project is related to my pine pic project.  I had two metal (tin) wall pockets I wanted to decorate for fall and I wanted to use what I had on hand.  Spray paint wasn’t needed for this project but you certainly can spray your silk flowers or your containers to change their color if you desire!

TALLOW BERRIES & TWINE

Often when I am designing or thinking about a potential project, I gather my objects together and try to come up with a theme .  I originally had three bundles of the tallow berry bush pictured above and used one in my pine pic project last fall.  I wanted to use another of the bushes for this project.  I left it brown .

Once I get the beginning of an idea, I like to give it a name.  I am all about alliteration!  One of my projects is call Red, Rustic & Reclaimed.

I named this project Tallow Berries & Twine!  The twine in the heart bowl pictured above was twine I saved from an order of pictures that I received!  My husband says I am a hoarder….  I will let you come to your own conclusion on that!

SUPPLIES

I knew I wanted to use the fall tallow berry bush, the two bundles of greenery and purple berries in the picture with the tin wall pockets and some fall leaves.  I wanted to make three bundles: 2 for the wall pockets and one for my oval dough bowl.  Dough bowls are one of my favorite things to decorate!  I keep an oval one on my coffee table and decorate it for the various seasons!  Here is a link to what it looked like last Fall! 

Fall Leaves

I cut the bush of fall leaves apart so that I could add a few leaves to each of the bundles.

THE PROCESS

Since I am right handed, I hold the stems in my left hand.  With my right hand, I add the the different silk flowers  at a slight angle. Because of where I was going to use these bouquets, I made them one sided.  If I was going to use them in a vase on a table where they could be seen from all angles, I would make the bouquet in a round shape.   An example of how to make a round hand tied bouquet can be found here:  

I like to work with bushes of silk flowers that I can either cut apart with my bolt cutters or needle nose pliers.  Some of the bushes are made with individually wired stems which makes it a lot easier to bend and shape the stems how ever you want them.

I often add swirls or pig tails to the ends of the stems to add interest.  I use a pen and twist the stem around the pen and then gently pull it out, leaving a spiral shape.

Once you have all your stems in place, it is time to tie the bouquet together.  I simply used brown floral tape to secure the stems.  The floral tape will stick to itself as you stretch it around the stems.  A gentle pull is all it takes.  If you pull too hard, the tape will rip.

Above is a picture of the stems wrapped with the brown tape.  After the brown tape is in place, to finish the stem treatment, I added twine.

To do this, I started at the top of the handle (the stems) and tied a piece of twine.  Then I wrapped the twine around the handle twice and tied a knot at the top.

To add more interest to the bouquets, I added a bow.  I made a simple twine bow for the small bouquet that was going in the dough bowl.

For the medium sized one that was going to be placed in the smaller wall pocket, I made a 3 loop bow from the fall themed burlap ribbon.

and for the largest of the bouquets, I made a four loop ribbon out of the same ribbon.