The beauty of working with millefiori canes is that they seem to last forever. Yes, they may take a lot of time and concentration time to assemble initially – a large preliminary time investment, shall we say – but since each slice is barely a millemeter thick, one well-constructed cane can be used over and over and over again. Two of the canes I’m using today were made nearly 3 years ago!
One of my long-lasting canes, however, is almost finished. I’m getting down to the very end of it, and this week, I put that cane a few slices closer to finally being done. I initially assembled the basic white, pink, and black flower cane to create a Mother’s Day gift for my mom (click here, here, or here to view a photos of the jewelry box and scarf pin/brooch I made for her). The leftover cane has been augmenting projects occasionally since then.
I’m currently working to develop a line of brooches. When my mother-in-law sent me a pack of how-to sheets she’d collected from JoAnn, one in particular caught my eye. It contains instructions for a simple gift bag, decorated by the large outline of a vase that contains a single long-stem flower. When I saw the gift bag design, I suddenly had the idea of shrinking that concept down to something much smaller: a delicate brooch with not just one but several long-stem flowers spilling out. And, since I had the flower cane ready and available for use, I decided to use it to create each delicate flower.
Thus the Flowery Vase Brooch was born. Click here to make it your own.
Here are photos of a few other items I’ve made using the same pink, white, and black flower cane. These items aren’t yet up in my Etsy shop but will be soon. Click the photo to enlarge, and if you’d like to order one of the below items before it’s available in my shop, just let me know.
Single Stem Brooch
Pink Blossom Barrette
Flowered Note Brooch
Pink Blossom Hair Pins
JennJill Designs 
These are beautiful!