The Process Of Doing What I Love

This is what I enjoy doing the most. Making my flowers from pencil shavings.

It really is not an easy process. It takes a lot of effort and concentration through the whole process.
When I  pick up the pencil and start sharpening, I have to keep it curling. Sometimes it seems the pencil or either the sharpener doesn't want to be obedient. In fact I think they are talking to each other some days, just to give me a hard time.
When I DO finally get them to work together, some days I can only make a few at a time.

After I have my "little curls", I then take them to my craft room where I have glued beads on stems.
I take my flower curl, place it around the bead, and try to form them into a bigger flower. I mix the curls together and make more than once color of flower.

Now comes the hard part. The Gluing! I hot glue the bud on the stem, and I try to take both colors and glue them as I twirl the curls.
Some days they all come together wonderfully, and  I have no problems. They seem to want to work with me to make a beautiful flower.
Other days, it seems when I touch them after I have glued, they want to just tear into pieces.
These are the days I swear the hot glue gun has conspired with the pencils and the sharpener.
After I finally get them glued, I  let them dry and I dip them into a mixture to make them hard.

After they have dried I wrap the floral tape, and affix leaves as I wrap.
Here we go again..I wrap and wrap and the leaves fall out of the floral tape.
I re wrap.. No, those leaves don't look good, so I take the leaves out, find some I think looks better with that certain flower, and start over.
Finally! They are now ready to be sprayed. The spray causes them to have a shine, and they are even more sturdy.

With all this work I wonder why more of my flowers aren't selling?
I did great with them in Flea Markets, Craft Shows and Stores.
I think maybe it's because others really can't see how beautiful they look in person, how sturdy they really are, and how they brighten what ever they are around.

When I lived in the Northwest and first started making my flowers, I wanted to test them to see how long they would last in different environments.
I placed some out on my patio in the coldest part of the Winter, when there was snow on the ground.
I was pleasantly surprised with the results!  They held up. The colors were still vibrant, and they were still as sturdy as when I made them.
I don't think others will be leaving them outside in the Winter, but if they decide to they will still be just as strong.