Summer Lavender

I have only one lavender bush this year but it has been blooming beautifully. Probably because it hasn't gotten extremely hot yet. I think lavender likes the cool foggy mornings. So with a bountiful supply of flowers I have been making lavender wands! It's good to cut the flowers from the plant anyway as it encourages more blooms. So if you would like to try it on your own, here are the steps I follow.

I choose stems from my plant that are rather long, I cut them in the morning when they are still supple. You need to have an odd number of stems. I had been using 13 but you can use 15 and in this project's photos I decided to try 19 which worked out very nice.

My favorite patio spot



My patio is covered and it is a lovely, shady, cool spot to enjoy making lavender wands in the summer heat. The breeze kicks up every once in awhile and the smell of the lavender as you make your wands is heavenly!

Gather your odd number of stems heads down. I try to line up all the tops very carefully, as this will be the top of your wand. Then you will want to pick off any of the stray lavender leaves that are on the stem. When I am choosing stems, I snip them above any that have lower blooms sprouting on them, but the ones that have just leaves I will go ahead and cut below the leaves if I can get a longer stem from doing so.

I save the buds that fall off while I'm working in a little bowl.
Later those can be added to a little satin bag to make a sachet!

Now you will want to tie the stems together right above the blooms. I like to use the twisty ties that come when you buy things that are attached to cardboard. They are a strong wire, but have a clear plastic coating over them so you can pull it fairly tight, and it won't show in the wand. I have used many other things for this step however such as the ribbon I wrap the wand with, a small rubber band or even just a piece of string.

Hold the bundle in your hand stems up and start carefully bending the stems down one at a time and placing them side by side to build your cage. Before during or after this step you will want to insert at least an inch of your ribbon into the bundle so that the end is buried into the flowers and the rest of the l yd length of ribbon is hanging loose and is ready to be wrapped. If you used the ribbon to tie the bundle, then just hide the tail.

Wrap the ribbon over and under each stem, carefully as they are delicate at this point. After you've come around once you will see that the second row should match up so that the ribbon goes over on the second row where it went under on the first row. Always keep your eye on the over-under pattern, if you missed a stem the pattern will be off.  The first row can be a little tricky, hang in there. You can see in the last picture above that after you get to about the third row the stems start getting nicely in place and it makes the weaving much easier!

Keep the over-under pattern of weave going around the entire bundle. Don't be afraid to pull it tight. As the lavender wands dry the stems will become slightly smaller so you want a tight weave to keep the lavender buds inside the cage. 

I haven't mentioned what ribbon I use, and it really depends on who or what the project is for and your piggy bank!  Lavender wands can be made as bridal shower gifts, thank you gifts, just because gifts or just hung in your pantry to keep the flour moths at bay! So choose a ribbon that makes sense for your project. I like lavender ribbon, but for a bridal shower you could choose a color that matched the brides theme. Here I have used regular small gift wrapping ribbon, the kind that curls when you put a scissor to it, which is kind of a bonus! You can also use satin ribbon and I buy spools of it on sale at the Mart stores or the Craft stores pretty inexpensively.

When all the buds are enclosed, wrap the stems with a good amount of the rest of the ribbon. Tie the ribbon in a knot so that it won't come unraveled. You can curl the ends so that they look pretty. Add a separate piece of ribbon to create a pretty bow and curl those ends if you like also. Trim the stems at the bottom, I like to cut them at a pretty angle. Then add a pretty tag, I make my own as I love paper crafting as well.

Beautiful!