As the old saying goes, we have good news and bad news.
| Fresh lavender stems or floral wire or reeds, netting, dried lavender and needle and thread
* Ribbon * Scissors * Glue |
The good news is that we recently spent a delightful afternoon with Anne Callaghan, owner of Pilchuck Lavender Farm in Stanwood, learning how to make lavender wands.
We had spotted the wands this summer in an Arlington gift shop and thought they’d make a wonderful project for the Craft Corner column.
The bad news is that fresh stems of lavender are needed to make the wands, and lavender season is pretty much over for the year.
But we decided to go ahead with the column anyway, because you can tuck the instructions for the fresh lavender wands away for next year, and with a little bit of imagination, we came up with an idea for making wands using dried lavender buds.
Let’s begin with instructions for the fresh lavender wands (the top two wands shown in our photo).
Step 1: Pick an uneven number of long, fresh lavender stems (13 works well), with at least 14 to 17 inches of stem. Even up the flowering ends so that the blooms are pretty much equal.
Step 2: Cut a piece of ribbon, at least 3 yards long, tie it tightly around the base of the flowers, knot it, then trim off the short end of the ribbon. Push the knot as close to the base of the flowers as possible.
Step 3: Turn the stems upside down, so that the flower bundle is pointing down and the stems up and, holding the flowers in your hand, gently fold the stems down over the flower bundle to form a cage.
Step 4: Begin weaving the ribbon over and under each stem to enclose the flowers inside the ribbon and stem cage. The first two or three rows of weaving can be a bit tricky, but if you take your time you shouldn’t have any trouble. Keep the ribbon comfortably tight and be careful not to skip a stem or your weaving will not come out right. Continue weaving until the flowers are completely enclosed.
Step 5: Stop weaving when you reach the bottom of the flower bundle and twist the ribbon very tightly around the stems to form the handle. When you get to the end, tie the ribbon in a bow to finish. Check the wand in a couple of days, after the lavender has dried out a bit, and re-tie the ribbon if necessary to tighten it. Add a drop or two of glue to secure the ribbon if necessary.
To make wands using dried lavender buds and store-bought stems (such as the two wands on the bottom of our photo illustration), the instructions are a bit different depending on which faux stems you choose to use, but you’ll begin by making a bundle of lavender buds.
Cut a small piece of netting, large enough to hold about a tablespoon of dried buds, and (using a needle and thread) make it into a tube roughly 2 to 3 inches long and no more than 1 inch wide.
Keep this bundle on the small side, or you’ll end up with more of a clunky lavender club than a delicate wand!
To make a wand using basket-weaving reeds (the yellow wand in the photo) we actually took a sheet of woven cane webbing and disassembled it to get our 13 stems.
Next, we gathered the stems together with the lavender bundle and joined them with a double length of thread at several intervals along the length of the bundle.
We then cut a length of ribbon (at least 3 yards) and tied one end tightly at the base of the lavender bundle with the stems pointing down, trimmed the short end of the ribbon, flipped the stems over and followed the same procedure as for the fresh lavender wands, enclosing the lavender bundle in the cage.
To make a wand using floral wire (the small green and blue wand in the photo), we selected six pieces of wire, folded them in half and secured them at the center with a seventh piece of wire by twisting it around the other six.
We trimmed the short end of the seventh wire, leaving enough length to attach the lavender bundle to it (securing it with thread as for the reed wand, and tying a 3-yard length of ribbon at the top of the lavender bundle trimming the short end of the ribbon as above), and trimmed the long end to make our 13th stem.
We worked the wire stems around the lavender bundle to form a cage and followed the same weaving and finishing procedures as for the fresh wands.
We encourage you to visit Pilchuck Lavender Farm during lavender season next year, as Callaghan offers classes in weaving wands and baskets in a relaxing outdoor setting, next to blooming lavender fields with the gentle buzzing of busy bees in the background. She’ll even serve you a cup of lavender tea and perhaps some cookies baked with lavender sugar.
In the meantime, to purchase dried lavender for gift and craft projects during the off-season, call the farm at 360-629-6465 or visit the Web site at www.pilchucklavenderfarm.com.
Note: In next week’s Craft Corner column, we’ll offer suggestions for making several holiday gifts using dried lavender.
Contact Jonetta Coffin at jrocoffin@aol.com.
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