Friday Flower: The Paper Hyacinth

It’s nearly mid-March. Do you know what that means?

Magnolia season. Dogwood season. Bulb season.

And the hyacinths are nearly here!

 TOP FIVE FLOWERS ACCORDING TO MOI

Stargazer Lily
Hyacinth
Dandelion
Shasta Daisy
Homegrown Rose

1.    Don’t anyone write me an email declaring outrage over the lack of calla lilies on the list. Relax. This isn’t the Olympics. They can try out again before their peek has passed.

2.    Yes, I am an eccentric, sequined cat lady and I can have Top Five Flowers list if I want to. You might have a list of Top Five Restaurants, or Top Five Friends, or Top Five Nights Involving Pantyhose, Grain Alcohol and a Muskrat. To each his own. No judgments.

There are few things I love more in life than the smell of the first March hyacinth. The window for it's arrival gets narrower every year, and when you find it, not only does it come accompanied by a beautiful flower, it comes heralding the best news you have heard in months: Spring is officially here.

Huzzah!


I have been wanting to make paper hyacinths for years but could never figure out how to create the delicate frillyness, until last fall, when I found a vintage cookbook with directions on how to make those little white ruffles that go on the end of turkey legs (name anyone?)

So, really, these aren’t so much hyacinths as they are big pink and purple turkey legs.





Note on tissue paper: Rumpled old tissue paper works best on this one. If you do not have any old stuff, wad it up for a day or two before you start –it will help the fibers to relax a little which will prevent them from tearing so easily.

Also, as you may have noticed above, my tissue paper has a big stain on it –the result of a simple water spill (all the colors in the stack ran together)...it gives some of the flowers a two tone effect that I think is pretty neat. But you could skip that. Or just spill water on a stack of colors and get them to run on purpose for a mottled/watercolor effect. That might be cool, no?

OK. Let's get this party started.

Begin by cutting some long skinny rectangles of tissue paper and fold in half on the long edge. My 

rectangles started as 3"x18" but you could play with the proportions to get all sorts of cool results. I like to work in stacks of four, but you could do a lot more if you are the delicate and efficient type. I am the rhinoceros type, so I stick to no more than four.

Snip the fringe (or fringesnip if you are sassy enough to pull off that kind of verb) on the folded edge. The narrower the better, just be sure to leave the outer half inch in tact.  

Adhere one end of the tissue fringe to the end of a straw and start rolling. Go around the top three, maybe four times then start spiraling downward.

Use a piece of tape to adhere the end of the fringe. Add a leaf if you want. I think they are more authentic looking without the leaves, but a little green won't hurt. 

 And that's it! They don't smell as nice as hyacinth but they sure are pretty :)

Happy weekend!