Fold Victorian Wire Ribbon Rosettes

My Victorian wire ribbon rosettes, three versions.

      Rosettes made with wire ribbon are made to last. They are considerably more durable and more expensive to make than the sample rosette projects that I have posted about in the past.

• Paper Rosette Ornaments and Garlands
• Cut and Paste Victorian Clown Paper Rosette Ornaments

Left, wire edged ribbons. Center accordion fold from above. Right, accordion fold from the side.

       Wire ribbon may also be recycled easily. If you have dated looking bows and trims made with it, these can be taken apart and upcycled into something new. The Victorians often crafted with ribbon rosettes and so rosettes are frequently associated with the Victorian Era Christmas tree.

      Wire rosettes implement the accordion fold. This is the same fold that school children learn in order to shape basic paper craft projects. (video of accordion folding below)

Left, 3 wire, accordion folded rosettes. Center, cutting and pasting metallic paper rosettes. Right, gluing together the rosettes.

Left, back side of a completed rosette. Next, edge of a finished rosette. Center Victorian printed image. Right, pasted acrylic gem.

 Supply List:

• acrylic gems
• 2 to 2 1/2 inch wired ribbon
• metallic cup cake liners
• scissors 
• stapler
• tacky white glue
• hot glue and gun
• Victorian scrap angels
• scrap cardboard
• gold cord for hanging

Directions:

1. Select a ribbon that you like, fold it front to back, on top of itself. I usually work with a length no longer then 20 inches. (pictured above)
2. Pinch and adjust the folds so that these look consistent. Then pinch one end of all the folds together and staple.
3. Now gently fan the unstapled side of the  accordion folded ribbon into the shape of a rosette. Staple together the two side ends of accordion folds. Conceal the stapled edges up inside the accordion folds or make sure that the staples are both on one side of the rosette. These will be less obvious on the back side of your ornament.
4. For the ornaments shown above, I also layered metallic paper rosettes on top of the wired ribbon rosettes. These were made by first cutting the centers out of cup cake liners and then gluing the rippled paper edges back onto a sturdy cardboard round. This round was covered with the same metallic paper discarded from the centers of the cup cake liners. Why not just crush the cup cake liner without cutting it apart you may ask? Because it looks better.
5. Then I used tacky white glue to attach a Victorian scrap angel to the center of the layered rosettes and pasted an acrylic gem to her halo.
6. Fold an additional metallic paper rosette for the back side of your ornament. 
7. Glue a gold cord between the layers of rosettes on the back side of your Victorian ornament and hang it on the tree.

Video by wonder studios.

 Folding More Christmas Rosettes:

• Christmas Rosette Wreath
• A Star Wall Hanging or Tree Topper trimmed with rosettes