The news for the last five weeks has been constantly filled with the events in Ukraine, and no one can fail not to have been moved by the suffering and personal turmoil of those caught up in these events.
Wondering what I could do to help, I realised that the national flower of Ukraine is a sunflower and that my popular felt flower brooch concept could be adapted to a sunflower! I decided to use this as a fund-raising vehicle to gather funds to support the work of DEC (Disasters’ Emergent Committee) in support of Ukraine. So, ordering some more gorgeous felt from CloudCraft who also made a generous contribution towards my #sunflowersforukraine campaign, I started making sunflowers!
A feature of the 100% merino wool felt flower’s design is their decorated four layered ruffle petals. Each petal is created by tracing around a template directly onto the yellow felt, and then finished with machine embroidery. After cutting out, the petals are layered into ruffles and stitched individually, four per flower, to the backing disc. A spiral raised blue felt disc is created and attached to the centre of the flower. Finally, after attaching a jewellery pin and label to another disc for the back, the sunflower is lightly steamed, mounted onto a gift card wrapped in tissue paper, and ready to go. Lots of processes in fact to get to the finished piece!
On Wednesday 23 March I mentioned on my Facebook page that I had made some sunflowers and would be selling them to raise funds for DEC Ukraine. I also posted images of the finished piece. Frankly, I was quite taken aback by the overwhelmingly enthusiastic response. The flowers literally flew out of my online shop and I received many private messages ordering from me directly. By Friday 25 March all the flowers were made up and posted.
Whilst I am conscious of the overwhelming need for continued support in this tragic situation, I am delighted to be able to write that the sunflower campaign raised £300, and with gift aid, the donation, made on Saturday 26 March, became £375. As the UK Government is matching such contributions, I am over the moon that the sunflowers will have raised £750 for DEC Ukraine.
Thank you everyone for your interest in my work and for supporting my #sunflowersoforukraine campaign.