Step 1

You will need:

Flowers: Fresh flowers and foliage of your choice. You don't need an awful lot, we've chosen a single spray rose along with some garden ivy to work with. Spray flowers are especially suitable for this kind of work, they typically have flowers at various stages of bloom and give you lots of wonderful material to work with. Another very suitable choice (especially to practice with) would be spray carnations.

Materials: Stem tape, stub wires and fine rose wire. If you've got some handy, cotton wool and a small bowl of water.

Tools: Wire cutters or multipurpose scissors, plus a very sharp knife.

Step 2: Select the flower heads and buds that you will use. Choose the best, and try to get a selection ranging from fully opened to tightly in bud. If you're mixing flowers within the same piece, choose a mix of larger flowers, tiny sprays, etc. Chop them off with the scissors, no need to be too precise about trimming the stems at this stage. Do the same with the foliage until you've got a nice selection to work with.  

Step 3: Start with the flower heads. Take the stub wires and chop them in half. Here we're using green 24 SWG wire in a 12" length. As with all wired work, use the thinnest wires possible, strong enough to support your flowers but no thicker than needed. This will help keep the finished piece slim and elegant. 

Step 4: Take the first flower head. Trim off virtually all the stem, leaving just a very short stub. Hold it firmly but carefully, and pass the wire through the base of the flower, from one side to the other. The wire will be sharp enough to pierce its own way through without bending. Have it coming through about 1 - 1.5 inches. This technique works well for roses and any other flowers with a strong, bulbous stem end.

Step 5: Bend the wire into a U shape. Pinching it quite tightly over the flower base, wind the short stub around the longer length.   

Step 6: You should now have something looking like the photo on the right. Don't worry if the stem wire is a bit bent, you will be able to straighten it later.

Step 7: Now take a short length of stem tape. It's easy to work with, has a papery texture and is self sealing, just using the inbuilt adhesive and the heat from your fingers.

Tear about 6 - 7 inches from the main roll. 

Step 8: Starting just under the cotton wool, start wrapping the tape around the wire. Once it has started to seal to itself, wind it up and over the cotton wool, to completely cover the base of the flower, then start it winding back downwards again. A couple of turns should do it.  

Step 9: Keep the tape winding down the wire. If you're right handed, the normal way to do this is to twist the flower and wire with the left hand while guiding the tape with the right hand. Spin the stem (gently) rather than flipping the tape around, it will achieve a neater result.

Step 10: Cover the wire pretty much to the bottom. You don't need to be too precise as you will most likely need to trim this shorter as the piece is assembled, so if you run out of tape before covering all the wire, don't worry.

Step 11: The process for covering the buds is exactly the same, but it's probably not worth bothering with the cotton wool. Just pierce the wire through the base as before, twist back on itself and apply stem wrap. 

Step 12: A good tip to achieve a very smart finish is to use half width tape for the smaller elements, to avoid ugly, bulky stems that look disproportionate. Take the sharp knife, and very carefully slit the tape down its length. If you've got two rolls of tape at hand, a tip from the professionals is to keep one for use at full width and one at half width.  Tape is said to be easier to cut if it has been in the fridge for a short while first.  

If you're at all unsure about why to do this, take a look at the two buds opposite. The top one has been taped in half width, the bottom one with full width, and the difference in elegance of stem is clearly visible. When that's multiplied by many elements in the same corsage, it makes a huge difference to the thickness and weight of the finished piece.

Step 13: Carry on wiring and wrapping until you've finished all the flower elements, as shown opposite. 

Step 14: There are many different techniques for wiring leaves, and to some extent you will need to choose the most appropriate for the particular foliage you are using. Here we're using a very fine 36 SWG rose wire, which is fine enough to use like thread. The most common way to wire leaves is to pierce the wire through the central vein at the back of the leaf just above the stem, trying not to show any wire on the leaf face. 

Leave a tiny amount of natural stem, and ensure the wires gently wrap around this as you twist the wires together.

Step 15: A useful technique to learn for very detailed work is leaf stitching. Using very fine wire, 'stitch' throuh the central vein near the stem, then loop the wire up and 'stitch' again through the central vein near to top. Bring the wire back down again, and twist together, and you've made a wire 'cradle' for the leaf. 

You can then bend and precisely place the leaf wherever you need to in the arrangement. Stem wrap the leaves as for the flowers, using half width tape.

Step 16: Wire and wrap enough leaves to complete the corsage. Make sure you choose the most perfect leaves in a good variety of sizes.  

Step 17: Have a very loose 'trial' assembly. Lay the pieces out in a design that looks balanced. don't worry too much about precise placement, what you're looking for is a good overall shape, balance of flowers and foliage and getting the corsage to the desired size. From a design perspective, elongated triangles work well, but trust your eye to achieve the best possible arrangement. 

Step 18: Once you're happy with the overall arrangment, start by taking the smallest components from the far end. Holding them together, take a new length of stem wrap and wrap them together. Just a couple of turns will hold them, then layer on the next element and secure with another couple of turns of tape.

Once each element has been secured into the arrangement, trim any excess stem off leaving just a couple of inches of leading stem to carry on layering to. 

Step 19: Once all the components are in place and taped together, give a final trim to the stem, allowing enough for an appropriate fixing or finishing bow, and finish covering with the stem tape. Tear off any excess tape and smooth in the torn edges with your fingers to seal.  

Step 20: If the finished corsage is more 'linear' than you intended, very carefully adjust and reposition the wired elements until they look right. If you've got any 'holding spray' for fresh flowers, give it a spritz now to give the leaves a lovely glossy shine and help to retain moisture. If not, get a fine mist spray and give the flowers a quick misting to help keep them fresh.

If you're using ribbon to cover the stem end, add it now. Wired organza looks great, just tie it to the stem end quite tightly, tie a large romantic bow and voila! You should have a beautiful corsage to be very proud of.  

If you've got a few tiny buds left over, turn them into a pretty little wired spray. Add a couple of small pearl sprays, and tape together.

With a simple gold satin ribbon, here's a stunning napkin tie - the perfect finishing touch to match the buttonholes and corsages if you're having a small and intimate wedding breakfast.