How to Make Wire Flowers (Step-by-Step Instructions)

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How to Make Wire Flowers

Learn how to make wire flowers as a beautiful decoration or a special gift. With just a few inexpensive items, you can create these works of art. The nice thing about these wire flowers is they do not have to be perfect, they look better if all of the petals are not in the same shape and size. They make a great Spring decoration. I showed how to make these wire flowers craft on my Mother’s Day TV segment at NBC affiliate WBAL.

This wire flower DIY is a lot of fun to make and different versions of these flowers would be a great decor for any occasion. Once they are painted the translucent petals resemble beautiful stained glass.

I first had the idea to make wire flowers after I made a wearable art creation for a fashion show where I created an abstract steampunk jellyfish. I designed a fitted steampunk-inspired dress with a flowing skirt to resemble tentacles. I wanted a headpiece to look bell-shaped and appear to have fluid movement. I needed a strong wire that would retain its shape. I decided to use metal coat hangers. Although they were not that easy to bend and shape, the headpiece came out exactly how I pictured it looking.

Click here to learn how I made it and how I made the bell-shaped jellyfish headpiece.

Here is a picture of me on stage wearing my Nautilus design during the fashion show portion of the competition. My original wearable art design won first place in the water category.

Nautilus Wearable Art

When I decided to use my same technique to make flowers made out of wire, I wasn’t sure what type of wire I was going to use to make them. I knew that a coat hanger would have been too thick and heavy to make smaller flowers and I would not be able to bend them into smaller petals. I wanted a type of wire I could shape with my hands and use pliers to twist the petals together.

I thought that craft wire would not be strong enough, but when I made a flower frame and attached the tissue paper with glue, it stabilized the flower perfectly.

Here is are the instructions for step-by-step wire flowers. This tutorial can be used for how to make large wire flowers and also small wire flowers.

How to Make Wire Flowers

• Bend the wire to create petals. Twist the center of the petal before creating the next one.

• Twist thin wire around the center of the flower to secure, keeping a long piece of the wire for tails.

• Add white glue to the rim of the wire flower frame.

• Cut pieces of tissue paper and attach it the wire flower, covering each petal.

• Create a glue and water mixture to thin the glue slightly. Paint the entire flower with the thinned glue and let dry.

• Paint the outside rim and center of the flowers with acrylic paint. Dip the paintbrush in water to give the inside of the petals a color wash.

• Paint a small amount of gold paint onto the inside of the flower near the center for a nice dimensional glow. Glue beads to the center of the flower.

• Attach the wire tails of the flower to a flower stem, secure it with hot glue.

• Tape off sections of glass vases and paint gold (I brought these from the dollar store). Let dry.

• Remove tape from the vase and display your beautiful wire flowers! Please send me a picture if you make these. I would love to see them!