RicRac Rose Rings

Try saying that three times fast!

A while back, I saw a mini tute online for roses made from ricrac. I thought 'oooh, pretty', but it wasn't full enough for me. The 'petals' were a bit sparse. I decided to have a play at plaiting/twisting two strands of ricrac together, to get a fuller looking flower.

It took a couple of attempts to get the twisting of the ricrac right, but once I'd got the hang of it, it was pretty simple. I don't know how much I used for the first one, as I just kept twisting until I thought I had enough. I then rolled it up, secured it with a few stitches and felt proud.

It sat around in my little box of tricks for a few days, until I decided that I really ought to do some thing with it. So I decided to make it a ring. I crocheted a basic leaf, then hit on the task of how to attach it to the ring base. The glue I use you have to clamp the items together while it dries, for it to hold properly, but I didn't have anything that would open wide enough to go over the ricrac. In the end, I glued a circle of felt onto the ring base, then sewed the flower and leaf onto the felt.

I bent back the outer few rows of 'petals' to give it a bit more personality, but in all honesty they look just as nice closed up.

I'd shown my Mum the ring, and she promptly asked me to make one for a friend of hers, but in blue. I did the same thing, but this time split a 1m length of ricrac into 3 lengths, using two lengths of dark blue for one flower, two lengths of light blue for another flower, and the remaining lengths of each blue for a third flower, and did the exact same thing

Yeah, these photos aren't the best. This blue is actually darker.

I was hoping that the petals on the mixed flower would be more random, rather than falling in lines, but I have a feeling that is because the two ricracs I used were actually different sizes, and the darker blue pulled the lighter blue in. I want to try it again, this time using the same size ricrac.

The light blue flower I made into a brooch, attaching it the the brooch back in the same was as I attached them to the ring bases. I'm not so keen on the leaves on this one, the seem a bit big and floppy for the flower.

I love how these look, and how quick and cheap they are to make, and can see them becoming a staple gift for my friends.