The book I’ve been writing, Weaving Flowers from New Zealand Flax, is now ready for sale. It contains detailed instructions for weaving fifteen different flower and foliage designs as well as different variations of several of the designs. The book also includes examples of flower arrangements for the designs, and additional flax foliage ideas for flower arrangements. Most of the flower designs can be woven from a single flax leaf, and are very quick to weave once you’ve had a bit of practice — many of them are much quicker to weave than the flower design shown in the instructions on my Weaving Flax Page.

Flowers woven from flax have become very popular over the last couple of years or so. Bunches of woven flax flowers are now offered for sale on TradeMe, and on the websites of Sema Morris and Tahi, and many school teachers are beginning to show their students how to weave flax flowers. I know from my own flax weaving workshops that people of all ages are keen to learn how to weave flowers — as wedding bouquets, gifts or decorations in their own home.

Woven flowers also make great projects for a beginner in flax weaving, and one of the advantages of flax flowers is that any variety of New Zealand flax can be used to weave them, including the coloured, variegated flaxes that are often grown as decorative garden plants throughout the world. Most of the instructions in the book are illustrated with the coloured flaxes, and show how nice they look as woven flowers. Of course, New Zealand flax is not essential for weaving flowers. As I mention on my History page, Māori traditionally used many different plants for weaving. Really, any plant with reasonably long, strong leaves can be used for weaving flowers.

Although most of the designs in the book are made from a single flax leaf, a few designs or variations are rather more elaborate, and one or two — like the sunflower shown on the right — require many leaves. Other photos from the book are shown in my Book page, which I’ve just added to advertise the book, including instructions on how to purchase it.

At the same time that I’m putting up this blog post, I’m also emailing all the people who have asked to be notified when the book came out, including some people who bought an earlier booklet that I put together rather quickly in 2007 when I was invited to tutor flower weaving to the conference delegates of the OSCAR after-school programme. (Up till now, I’ve called the current book a booklet, but as it is now over a hundred pages in length and has its own ISBN number, I think I can fairly describe it as a book!)

Incidentally, the price of the book is considerably higher than the earlier booklet. This reflects the increase in size, from a 16-page booklet of 5 flower designs with small photographs to a 115-page book of 12 flower designs and 3 foliage designs with much larger photographs and more detailed instructions, as well as flower arrangements and additional flax foliage ideas.

I imagine those who purchased the earlier booklet will find the book greatly improved. As well as the increase in size and detail, the quality of the photographs, instructions and layout is also much improved. However, I’ve no doubt that the book can be improved still further. If you buy the book, do post a comment below if you can see how it might be improved, or post a question if any of the instructions are not entirely clear. If you’re considering buying the book, and there’s anything you’d like to know about it, please don’t hesitate to ask. Also, if you have a digital photo of a flower or flowers you have made — or a photo of another version of a woven flower that you’d like to share — you can use a free photo-sharing website such as www.flickr.com, and put a link to the photo in my comment box.

Update February 2011
The book is now in its second edition, and contains 127 pages with instructions for sixteen flower and foliage designs. The sixteenth flower is shown on Beachcombing for flaxworks.

© Alison Marion Brown 2009.

Even though there are only a few days to go before Christmas, there’s still time to make the odd flax decoration. Shredded flax lends itself to making an angel in much the same way that straw and grasses have traditionally been used to make angels in other cultures. I’ve used variegated flax for the angel design illustrated in these instructions, which is a very quick and easy design to construct.

Shred two or three flax leaves with a fork or dog comb. Tie the shredded flax into a bundle with another piece of flax.

Turn the bundle up the other way so that the tie is inside the bundle and the shredded flax hangs down and around the tie, then tie another strip of flax around the bundle. This will make the neck of the angel.

Shred a little bit more flax for the arms. Tie the shredded flax together in the middle and then slip it in between the shredded flax of the body. Push it up so that it’s right underneath the tie for the neck.

Tie another piece of flax around the body below the arms to create a waist. Now shred some more flax and divide it into two bundles.

Drape one bundle over the right shoulder and bring it across the front of the body to the left. Drape the second bundle over the left shoulder and bring it across in front of the body to the right. Tie these in place around the waist.

Bend the arms around to the front and tie them together in the front of the body. Cut off the ends of the flax, shaping the ends into hands.

To make very simple wings, take a piece of a flax leaf and scrape a blunt knife along both sides to soften and dry it a little to prevent the wings from curling up. Fold the flax on an angle with the fold at the top and a piece of flax coming down at an angle on each side and cut these sides into wing shapes. Staple the pieces in place close to the fold. (I used variegated flax to make the wings look feathery but no doubt more elaborate wings could be made by splitting and folding the flax in other ways). Attach the wings to the angel’s shoulders at the back. I stapled the wings on but you could use superglue.

You can draw a face on the angel or use a shell for her face. I’ve left the face as it is but have given her a halo by placing a rounded, smoothed-by-the-sea piece of shell on the top of her head.

Trim the ends of her dress off evenly at the bottom and cut off any stray threads. If you want to stand the angel upright on a flat surface, spread her robe out over something like a small stone or piece of wood. This will help her to keep her balance so she doesn’t fall from grace!!

For those who are waiting for my book, Weaving Flowers from New Zealand Flax, you may be interested to know that the writing and illustrations have now been completed. I’m currently sorting out its printing on my home printer. Printing is a slow business on a home printer but it shouldn’t be too long before the book is ready for sale.

© Alison Marion Brown 2008.

The flax weaving techniques used in basket making are often the same techniques that other countries around the world use in their traditional weaving, although the raw materials are different. I always find it fascinating to see a sample of this universal nature of weaving, so I was most interested when one of my students showed me a three-dimensional star, made with birch bark, that she had purchased on her recent visit to the USA. The star is the same as the one shown on the blog post, Gift wrapping with flax, but it has an extra step to make spikes on the star. These spikes give the star the three-dimensional shape like the one in this photo.

To make this three-dimensional star, follow the steps for making the eight-pointed star on the Gift Wrapping with flax blog post, but don’t cut any ends off. The spikes on the star will be made with these two sets of four ends that are left.
 

 
Take the top strip of the two end-strips that are laying out to the right and bend it back on itself. The folded point underneath it is now showing.
 

 
Take the right-hand strip of the two end-strips that are coming out from the bottom of the star, and fold it up to the top, exposing the folded point at the bottom right.
 

 
Now fold it across to the right on a 45-degree angle. Keep the start of the fold as close to the centre of the star as possible. Press it down to crease it.
 

 Bring the end of this strip back around and poke it underneath the first strip that was bent back on itself. Push the end right through so that it comes out between the middle of the folds of the top point on the left.
 

Pull the strip through until it folds around into a spike. Don’t pull too far or it will undo the spike. Squeeze the strip to make it more spikey. Alternatively, to make the spike more open, push your finger into the centre of the spike and push the flax out to shape it.

 
 
Repeat these steps for the other three strips on this side of the star. As this version has a flat side, it can be used to tie around gifts.
 

 
For the second version of the star, make spikes on the other side in the same way as the first side. To finish, cut off all the ends. This side view shows the spikes poking out from both sides. To hang the star up, split a thin strip off the inner side of one end and cut the rest of the strip off.

Incidentally, my student took bouquets of flax flowers with her on her trip to the USA and declared them as she went through USA customs. She reports that she had no trouble getting them through.

© Alison Marion Brown 2008.