A few weeks ago I received this email from one of my readers:

“Hi Shireen. I made some lovely spheres with your instructions but would really like to make a full dandelion seed head with the sphere . How is this done so it stays intact please.”

I offered to try it out myself, and share any tips I might discover along the way.

If you’d like to try this yourself, check out my book Resin Jewellery. It’s available both online and in print, and covers all the skills you need to reproduce what I’ve done here, what materials you need and where you can buy them all :)

The square one was easy. I am using a cubic silicone mold and simply scattered a few loose bits of fluff into the mold before pouring.

The spherical one was trickier. The first step was to find a dandelion head that was small enough to fit in the mold, as symmetrical as possible, and still intact. When I gathered it up, I brought a mason jar, so once the piece was plucked I would be able to protect it from the wind on the walk home.

When I inserted it into the mold, I did so stem and all. Leaving the stem attached allowed me to place the head in the mold without disturbing the seeds. When the piece came out of the mold, the stem was trimmed off.

This does allow some air into the piece (which means there will be some reaction with the stem over time), but because a dandelion head is already dried out, the change over time won’t be noticeable.

The result is a perfectly preserved dandelion head! I love these, will definitely make a few more :) Thanks for your questions Coral!