DIY: Lavender Wands
Make wands and more with cut stalks and a sense of adventure.
June/July 2004
By Andrew and Melissa Van Hevelingen
Add the wonderful fragrance of lavender in a nostalgic, inspirational form to the linen closet, in drawers or on the wall of your favorite room.
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To begin, choose straight, long-stemmed flower stalks from the garden, selecting only enough to make the number of wands or baskets you plan to make immediately. It’s best to harvest lavender in late morning after the dew has dried and before it gets too hot. Here are two great options for making these pretty, fragrant crafts to preserve your garden’s legacy.
Although practice and wand making will improve the product to some extent, all wands bear the mark of the maker’s personality. I suggest beginners learn the skill by watching someone who has made wands before.
Classic Lavender Wand
Because the wand is made by weaving a ribbon over and under adjacent stalks, you must use an odd number of stalks. (I usually use 13, but the number varies depending on the cultivar and how fat I want the head to be.) Harvest only the most robust and straight flower stalks. Cut them just above the first set of leaves and avoid any stalks with side flower stalks, which weaken the stalk and could break off during weaving.
Materials
- 6 feet 1/4-inch satin ribbon
- 13 stalks fresh, straight, long-stemmed lavender, such as ‘Grosso’, ‘Provence’, ‘Abrialis’, ‘Super’ or ‘Hidcote Giant’
- Heavy thread
- Clippers
- Scissors
- Align the flower heads and wrap the thread tightly below the flowers, including one end of the ribbon. Knot the thread and trim the ends; leave 1/4 inch tail of the ribbon.
- Turn the wand so the flowers point downward. One at a time, bend the stalks over the thread. (Pressing your thumbnail into the stalk above the thread as you bend it prevents breakage if the stalks have dried out a little.) Space stalks evenly like the spines of an umbrella (Figure 1).
- Bring the ribbon to the outside of the umbrella and begin to weave over and under adjacent stalks. As you weave, pull on the ribbon fairly hard and make sure the flowers inside are covered (Figure 2). As the pulling causes the stalks to twist, realign them after weaving three rounds so they are once again straight and evenly spaced. Repeat this step if necessary after the sixth round.
- After weaving beyond the flower heads, form a handle by weaving the ribbon tightly for 4 to 5 inches. Tie it off in a bow. After the wand dries, reweave the ribbon on the now shrunken handle and retie the bow.