DIY Network

Metal Mesh Flowers Create beautiful blooms from metal mesh. From "B. Original" episode DBOR-109

Plant these metal blossoms in your décor!

If you think of artificial flowers as something delicate, soft or small, think again: Big, beefy blossoms can be just as beautiful.

B. Original host Michele Beschen shows you how to make your own burly blooms out of aluminum mesh. They're fun, pretty and tough enough to use in outdoor décor. You can get started on your own metal bouquet today: It just takes some mesh, a dowel, a heavy-duty stapler and the drive to B. Original!

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	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C

Materials:

aluminum mesh screen
tin snips
leather work gloves
dowel (¾" to 1¼" in diameter)
heavy-duty hand stapler
spray paint

• Use tin snips to cut your aluminum mesh into four panels, each 36" square.

  Safety Alert: Always wear gloves when working with metal screen. The cut edges are sharp.

• Take opposite corners of one screen of mesh and staple them, together, to the top of the dowel (figure A).

• Staple the other two corners to the dowel (figure B).

• Take one of the "corners" where the screen is folded over, fold it down to the dowel and staple (figure C). Keep working around your flower this way, folding and stapling the edges of the screen.

• Once the screen is secured and no edges are sticking up (figure D), repeat the process, attaching the other three screen to the same dowel (figure E).

Figure D

Figure E

You can leave your big, beautiful blossoms their natural color or spray paint them any way you choose. You'll find plenty of uses for these burly blooms:

Try weaving them through an iron gate...

Or planting them alongside other foliage.