Packing French beaded flowers to ship in the mail
If you make French beaded flowers, then chances are that you will ship it as a gift to a loved one or a customer. Today, I will share with you some tips on how to pack your French beaded flowers so that it is secure to ship.
How to pack French beaded flowers to ship (French beaded yellow magnolia by Fen Li)
In the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing with you how to make my new pattern, Winter rose poinsettia. A friend of mine wanted to buy the sample and so I made a quick video of how I pack it up to ship. Unfortunately, when I went to look for the video, the file was corrupt. So I decided to pack my French beaded yellow magnolia instead as an example. This flower is a pattern that is in my book “Bead Flora: the revival of French beaded flowers.”
Tips on Packing French beaded flowers:
- Use the correct size box – well, that’s obvious! When I picked the box to pack my French beaded magnolia in, it looked like it fit. But after I wrapped it up, the stem would not go in. I bent the stem wire in the video because I wasn’t really mailing it for real.
- Consider shipping charges – French beaded flowers can be heavy. If your flowers are heavy, it could be more cost effective to ship with a USPS flat rate box if you are in the US. If it’s a single stem, it probably would cost less shipping First Class but if it gets over a pound, then it would be more cost effective to ship via a flat rate box.
- Fill in all spaces with packing material – when I packed the winter rose poinsettia, I used just bubble wrap to fill in all spaces. I had a lot of excess bubble wrap because I hoard it from online shipments that I receive. In the video with the French beaded yellow magnolia, I used tissue paper to fill in the spaces. After you put your wrapped beaded flower into your box, fill the box with additional packing material around it so it doesn’t move around. You can use kraft packing paper, tissue paper, packing peanuts, or even more bubble wrap.
- Consider sending a flower with shorter petals – If you want to send a beaded flower to a loved one as a gift, consider sending one with shorter petals. There’s less of a chance of the petals becoming out of shape in the mail. My friend received the winter rose poinsettia in perfect condition.
- Use heavier wire – If you are selling French beaded flowers and want to sell a variety of flowers, consider using heavier wire if you are making flowers with a longer petal. I used 24 gauge copper-core wire for the French beaded magnolia petals. If I had intentions of selling it, I probably would have used 22-gauge copper-core wire so that it holds its shape better in the mail.
- Give care instructions – Give your recipient care instructions on how to shape the petals back into place if they become out of shape in the mail.
