How to make embroidery hoop art with dried flowers – Olga Prinku
How to make embroidery hoop art with dried flowers – Olga Prinku embroidery artist and author of Dried Flower Embroidery
I can’t quite remember what first brought me to Olga on Instagram, but what I do remember is stopping in my tracks and having to find out more. What I’d seen was a photograph of the prettiest tulle-filled embroidery hoop hand decorated with dried flowers. I discovered all sorts of other beautiful creations by Olga as well as a collection of hugely helpful tutorials for anyone wanting to have a go at creating botanical embroidery hoop art.
Olga shares her ideas and tips for success
Before I knew it I’d made contact with Olga to ask if she might like to share an idea or two with us here. With Autumn fast approaching, I’m thinking that making your own embroidery hoop art with any flowers you might be drying yourself and wondering what to do with them. If you just fancy trying your hand at this meditative seasonal craft, I can promise it will bring you a little simple, creative joy along the way. Olga has created a way of bringing together the art of flowers with the craft of embroidery and a touch of graphic design. It’s the perfect way to weave in some real organic material into your next embroidery project.
Here’s Olga’s step by step to creating a mini Spring themed hoop inside a presentation box. Just change the flowers/colours to suit the season you’re working in. Scroll down to see lots of other inspiring dried flower embroidery design ideas by Olga – all made using the same technique. Once you’ve mastered it with the help of this free tutorial, you’ll be able to try your hand at any design that takes your fancy. Hope you enjoy.
materials:
4” embroidery hoop
A pice of tulle fabric big enough to cover the hoop (tulle with big eyelets).
Dry flowers and foliage: I’m using dry small poppy heads, dry grasses, dry eucalyptus leaves and seeds, dry yellow helichrysum Immortelle, dry hydrangea.
You can find all of these dry flowers and more on etsy
Little scissors
• Please note that this tutorial is for personal / non commercial use only
step by step
1.Stretch the tulle over the embroidery hoop, tighten and trim the excess.
2. Pick 3 single hydrangea blooms making sure there’s a bit of stalk left. Weave the stalk through the net so the flower is secure in place. Attach all three hydrangea flowers at the bottom of the hoop as closely as possible to each other.
3. On the right hand side of the hydrangea place a couple of eucalyptus leaves weaving the stalk of the leaves in the same way as with hydrangeas.
On the left hand side place some dry eucalyptus berries.
4. Now Attach the poppy heads. Trim the stalks at an angle for ease of weaving. I’ve used mine in between the eucalyptus leaves and one just above of the hydrangea blooms.
5. Weave in a couple of grasses at an angle on the same side as the eucalyptus leaves. Trim any excess grass stalks.
6. Snip each single helichrysum bloom leaving at least 7mm of stalk and weave 4 or 5 of them on the left hand side of the hydrangea flowers following the curve of the hoop.
7. Now do the same on the other side – fill the gaps between the hydrangea bloom and grasses on the right hand side.
8. Depending if you have any gaps underneath the hydrangea blooms weave in a few more of the small helichrysum to fill in as well making sure the end of the stalk is hidden underneath the hydrangea petals.
Display! Best way to display is in a shadow box frame behind glass to protect the flowers from dust and sunshine.
Sourcing Supplies
You can find all of these dry flowers on etsy as well as masses of others. See the individual links in the materials list above for individual flower suggestions.
Find bamboo embroidery hoops on Etsy too
English hexagonal tulle is perfect for this project
Dried Flower Embroidery Book by Olga
This beautiful book by Olga has masses more ideas, tips and ideas for you to try. It’s available to buy in hardback from Waterstones and in paperback or for Kindle from Amazon.
Find masses of dried flower ideas on Etsy
Make your own dried flowers
The wonderful Everlastings book by Bex Partridge of Botanical Tales has all you need to know about drying your own flowers. There are masses of inspiring creative projects to enjoy too. You can buy a copy here>>
Other creations by Olga to give you some ideas and inspiration
I love this reconstructed Cowslip design by Olga – watch her wonderful video tutorial that takes you through step by step how to make one just like it for yourself.
View this post on Instagram
If you’d like to delve deeper and see more of Olga at work, there’s Dried Flower Embroidery Tutorial here (It’s £19.99 and includes tips on how to dry and preserve found flowers, how to work with embroidery hoops, selecting flowers, techniques and design tips. colour and pattern tips, preserving your artwork and also includes a PDF guide.
Other ideas you might enjoy
You’ll find designs like this one one by Laura and Wildflower Co on Etsy – taking the embroidery hoop again, but this time using natural string to secure the dried flowers in place.
INFORMATION
Olga Prinku is listed in the From Britain with Love directory here >>
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When putting on the tulle netting do you put it on double or just a singly to then attach your flowers to? Thank you.
So creative! Such an inspiration for my future creations.
your artworks are amazing.
Do you sell some of the works you posted on the website?
Please need to ask Olga for help. I ordered her book off Amazon
And I looked up templates as aloud but next day went to print them and the next day I have n access. Please help
Hi Sue – don’t quite understand the problem, but I would suggest you contact Olga directly – either reach out via Instagram https://www.instagram.com/olgaprinku/ or there’s a contact form on her website https://www.prinku.com/contact hope that helps! x
Thanks for sharing! 😊