jewelry | Outside The Lines

Would you agree that there is something enchanting about pressed flowers? They dazzle the eye with vibrant color and exquisite detail, all the while evoking gentle feelings of nostalgia. Perhaps best of all, pressed flowers cost nothing.

Preserve Your Favorite Spring Flowers by Pressing Them

Do you love flowers? Do you hate to see things go to waste? Are you great at crafting and making things beautiful? If so, our pressed flower jewelry box project is for you. It is the perfect Springtime craft, and also makes a thoughtful gift.

Before you begin making your jewelry box, gather the needed materials:

Small wooden box
2 pieces of white paper
Acrylic paint (your choice of color)
Small paintbrush
Elmer’s glue
Several blooms of your favorite Spring flower (small blooms work best)
Krylon anti-UV clear acrylic sealer (comes in a spray can)
A hardback book

Altogether, these materials should be very inexpensive.

Directions for Making Your Pressed Flower Jewelry Box

Once you have gathered your materials, you are ready to get started making your pressed flower jewelry box. Follow these directions to get a beautiful result:

Carefully place your live flower blooms onto one piece of white paper; do not let the blooms overlap. Open your hardback book and place the white sheet loaded with blooms into it. Cover the blooms with the other sheet of white paper and close the book firmly. Now comes the hard part: leave the book alone for at least a week; this is how long it takes for the flowers to become thoroughly pressed and dried.

In the days you are waiting for your flowers to dry, paint your wooden box with the acrylic paint you chose. You may need to apply 2 coats of paint. White is the perfect showcase color for your vibrant pressed flowers. Allow box to dry totally.

After the week long period, open the hardback book and carefully remove the dried flowers with tweezers. They will be as thin as tissue paper, so be very gentle.

Using tweezers, arrange the pressed flowers into a design of your choice on top of the box. Be as creative as you desire. Remember, this is your creation!

After your flowers are arranged atop the box, carefully lift each dried bloom and dot tiny amounts of school glue (use a toothpick to do this) on the backside of the flowers. Then, lay the flowers on the box and gently press down on them. Do this until all your dried flowers are glued in place. Let arrangement dry.

The last step is to spray your completely dry craft with Krylon clear acrylic sealer. Be sure that the top of your jewelry box is open when you do this; otherwise, the spray will glue the box’s lid shut. You may want to spray another coat of sealer after the first coat is dry. Allow box to dry. Your Springtime pressed flower jewelry box is now finished and ready to be enjoyed!

We would love to see your finished product. Please share a photo of your Springtime craft with us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/segmation).

Is there a specific craft you love to make that uses pressed flowers? Please share with us in the comments section below.

Read more Segmation blog posts about art and color:

Paint by Number – The Original DIY Project

Colorful Flowers to Plant this Spring

Easy Ways to Prepare Your Home for Spring

Be an Artist in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

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Art and jewelry merge at this year’s Biennale des Antiquaires. At this biannual event, collectors are presented with high fashion jewelry created by top designers. The jewelry is rare because designers craft pieces to reflect famous artwork. To create these pieces, jewelers are pulling their inspiration from artists like Impressionist painter, Monet and Dutch artist, Mondrian. The result is a unique set of designs driven by the tastes and preferences of modern art’s most significant influences.

~Claire Dévé-Rakoff is creative director at Chaumet. She insists that color will take precedence over stones this year. Her palate was comprised of soft pastels pulled straight from the Impressionist era. In fact, she directly references Claude Monet when mentioning Chaumet’s theme of light and water. She is especially interested in the way light and water play together and the color combinations that are created as a result; yellow diamond and blue sapphire, for example.

~Chanel also plays with light in its Sunset collection. The work conjures the emotion and calm of pink and golden sunsets. White diamonds and pink sapphires mix with pastel opals to imitate the streaks of color seen at dusk. Their centerpiece, a necklace of white and pink gold, surrounds a sapphire with subtle hints of orange.

~A designer returning to the show this year, Wallace Chan of Hong Kong, found inspiration in the work of Piet Mondrian. Chan’s attraction to geometric shapes and clean lines was due to, what he called, “a quest for purity.” Bright green garnets and tourmalines contrast pink rubelittes and sapphires in a gorgeous ring.

~A newcomer to The Biennale, Giampierro Bodino, calls on Italian influences and colors, particularly those of Renaissance painter, Sandro Botticelli. No doubt there’s a bit of national pride behind the Milanese designer’s work, as Italy, perhaps more than any other country, has a rich heritage of art and culture. Pastels and vibrant colors are present here, providing beautiful combinations. A cuff designed by Bodino is made up of green chyroprase which sits inside purple sapphires and diamonds of white gold. Another cuff features light pink opals set against pink sapphires and diamonds, mounted in rose gold.

It is a year of new influences at the 2014 Biennale des Antiquaires. Well, new influences that, at the same time, happen to be old. Top designers found a wealth of inspiration for color and tone in the works of famous artists of the past. This inspiration is credited with producing collections of vibrancy, elegance, and simplicity. It’s a communication between the arts. Indeed, it’s like a miniature renaissance in jewelry.