Bridesmaid Gifts, Centerpieces (Ikebana)

So, two things this morning, both inspired by a gigantic art fair in Michigan my mom and I attended recently.

The first thing was something we both thought we be an absolutely charming bridesmaid gift, especially if the ones you bought matched the dresses. The company is called Forest Flower Jewelry, and they make some of the neatest jewelry I've ever seen - namely because they take live flowers and leaves and either hand-paint them with gold or lacquer. Besides buying jewelry before the wedding from them, they also offer a service where they lacquer and preserve your wedding flowers for you, which is a really nifty idea, for say, a wedding gift. Here are what some of their amazing pieces look like:

I love the small rosebud pendants, which I could make into earrings, easily. At $20 a piece, they aren't cheap, but I know from the art show, you can snag earrings from this company for $30 a pair, and if you only have 3 or 4 bridesmaids, it's a wonderful, classic gift (I mean, they're real flowers!), for not that much money!

On another note, with regard to these adorable little rosebuds, I might (might) attempt to make a pair, using stuff from the craft store. I'll let you know how that goes...

Secondly, at the art fair, there were tons of ceramics vendors selling these nifty little pots that I had never seen before - they're called Ikebana, and they are integral to the Japanese art of flower arranging. They look like this:

To hold the flowers in place, they have little spiky metal disks (I know that sounds more frightening than it actually is) called Frogs that sit right underneath the opening.

See the little metal spiky thing peeking out, there?

This picture is from an Etsy site for the fellow who I bought my Ikebana from - Here is a link.

You take flowers, or branches, and basically impale them on the spikes to hold them up, put a little water in the pot, and voila, you have a simple and elegant arrangement. I was just thinking that these would be a lovely centerpiece, however, and that you could even have a drawing and give them to people as prizes or somesuch after the wedding. Basically, pottery rocks. This also reminds me - I should really do a piece on Etsy one of these days, just to talk about how cool and endless the ideas you can get from Etsy are.