All You Need to Know About Floral Wire

Floral wire is one of the most indispensable tools in a florist and crafter’s arsenal. When creating sola wood bouquets, this bendable metal thread helps you achieve bouquet shapes that are rather impossible to do if you’re using bamboo wood stems and other alternatives. But beyond being the best floral wire for bouquets, there’s actually more to the floral wire than what we almost always use it for. 

Let’s start by learning more about the lesser-known floral wire facts and its uses.

What is Floral Wire?

Floral wire is a thread made usually out of iron, aluminum, or stainless steel. When you go to a craft store, you’ll see two types of floral wires being sold: floral stem wire and wire spools. Stems are great for putting stems on sola flowers. It’s also good for supporting heavy flower heads. Meanwhile, spools are perfect for reinforcing fresh or dry flower stems. To conceal the wire around the stem, you can bind it with floral tape.

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Aside from the material it is made of, florists differentiate floral wire according to the wire coating. There’s the plain stem wire, painted stem wire, and wrapped stem wire. Most of the ready-to-use floral wire in flower shops and craft stores are green painted stem wires to match the foliage when used for bouquets and centerpieces.

Because of its malleability, many ingenious crafters create different types of wire art and incorporate it with the bouquet. You can create fillers that resemble curly ting ting stems and manipulate it any way you want to enhance your floral arrangement further.

How to Use Floral Wire

If you bought green stem wires to use on a wedding bouquet, it is important to wrap it with floral tape to cover the entire length of the wire. Although the stems are already painted green and will blend in with the rest of the foliage, floral tape gives satin and other slippery ribbons something to grip on to, making the ribbon stay in place and hold the flowers firmly

To wrap the wire in floral tape, pinch the corner of the tape with the end of the wire in one hand. With the other hand, hold the tape diagonally and slightly pull the tape as you wrap the rest of the wire with it. Stretching the tape helps activate the wax coating and makes it stick easier while wrapping. Smoothen out the floral tape with your index finger and thumb.

Once wrapped in floral tape, you can proceed with stemming your sola flowers. Dab some hot glue at the base of the flower and insert about half an inch of floral wire into the flower. When the glue sets, it will keep the wire in place.

Floral Wire Gauge Thickness Chart

The gauge number is how you measure the floral wire thickness. Remember, the rule with gauge thickness is: the lower the number, the thicker the wire.

• 16 gauge floral wire - 16 gauge floral wires are the best floral wire for bigger and heavier flowers that need to be supported by thicker stems
• 18 gauge floral wire - Multipurpose wire that is great for stemming and for creating wire art
• 22 gauge floral wire - Use this floral wire to secure greenery and foliage to wreaths and corsage work 
• 26 gauge floral wire - A thin floral wire that is used to attach ribbons to the bouquet and is for working with delicate flowers

Where to Buy Floral Wire

18 gauge floral wire is available at the Sola Wood Flowers website. These are perfect, all-purpose wires that can be used for stemming as well as for creating wire art to add to your bouquets and centerpieces. 

Sold in packs of 12, these floral wires are made of aluminum so they’re very lightweight. It’s perfect for creating bouquet pieces and boutonnieres where minimizing the weight of the finished pieces are important for optimal comfort. It’s the best floral wire for crafting sola flower arrangements. 

Now that you’ve learned more about floral wires, you can better appreciate what each kind can do and what it may be used for. Go beyond using it as flower stems and explore how wires can make your bouquet stand out among the rest.

Need feedback on your Sola Wood Flowers project? Snap a photo and share it at Sola Wood Flowers Official Facebook page. From dyeing techniques to pricing guides, you’ll learn a lot of things from your fellow sola flower crafters all over the country who have been creating sola flower art as a hobby or as a business.

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