Adding realism (?)

While I knew that paper flowers were the way to go for our wedding, I couldn't help but develop a fondness for all the yellow bouquets with green hypericum berries I was finding online. (Hm, I think I have neglected to mention so far that our colors are navy, kelly green and yellow.)


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But how to incorporate them into our bouquets? Buy them from a florist and pop them in? Buy in bulk through an online distributor? How long would they last fresh? Is there a dried alternative?
Mostly what I found online was about $110 for 80-100 stems but I just wasn't sure about going the live route. I remembered a post from Miss Beagle on WeddingBee about her brilliant fabric bouquet and the faux berries she found in the silk flower department, but for the life of me I couldn't find anything similar. So I bought some green polymer clay and figured I might try making berries out of that. I've made things out of clay before. I mean, my sister and I made the most adorable little cheerleaders out of clay in high school for Christmas ornaments. Berries? Pfft. Pas de problem.

Well, I can't report on the clay berries because earlier this week on another trip to Hobby Lobby (I like to go browse occasionally ^_^) I found these interesting little styrofoam balls in a pale green. I was a little unsure on the shade of green as they seemed a little too pale and perhaps a smidge too small, but figured, what the heck. It's $2.50 for this big ol' bag, I'll give it a whirl.

Supplies:
Itsy-bead-sies, $2.50
Floral wire, $2.77 (but I think I got it on sale, actually)
Floral tape


An idea of the scale of the berries. They aren't uniform by any means, but this gives a good idea of the size range.


I cut a piece of floral wire (about 2-3 inches) and carefully pierced a styrofoam ball with one end. Make sure the wire is as straight as you can get it or you'll pop out a big chunk of styrofoam when you come out the other side, which makes things more difficult later on. Twisting slightly, I slowly pushed the wire through the ball, out the other side. I made a small loop on the end of the wire and then pushed the ball back up the wire so that the loop was mostly embedded in the ball. I thought this looked more realistic, like the little bitty stem on the end of a real hypericum berry, and would also help the ball stay in place. Repeat on other end of wire. Fold wire roughly in half so both berries stick up. I bent the wire so that the berries would be at slightly different heights.


After making 3 pieces of wire (6 berries total), I bound them together with a piece of floral tape. I tried arranging them precisely, but the act of taping made them shift anyways, so I ended up just bending the wires around to a natural-looking shape. Then I taped the bunch to a longer floral wire that could be taped to the bouquet stems.

The finished product:




Unfortunately, I think they're a little too pale next to the yellow. They look washed out (of course, the lighting in my apartment really sucks, so that doesn't help). But I'm toying with the idea of watercoloring them with a wash of slightly darker green, just to tint them a little richer shade of green. What do you think?