Have you ever been to a Pacific Island where everywhere you look the women are wearing flowers in their hair? You can recreate this beautiful traditional head garland, for a child who wants to be a fairy, a bridal headpiece, an island themed night, perhaps you may even just wear it down your busy main street to gather the admiring glances! Featured are the wonderful floral artists, wearing their own creations who allowed their photos to be taken and  shared their modern techniques for an ancient craft. To see more fabulous designs from around the world, subscribe to 'floral design magazine" or complete your collection with the exclusive CDs of the top shows around the world. See what is currently in stock here..

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Click here for all the information you need to have this fabulous flower arranging resource in your home fast! Headbands Pacific style. Auckland, New Zealand has the biggest Polynesian population in the world, and the annual celebration "Pacifika" held in early March each year, is the place to go to see  floral art used as body decoration. The editor of floral design magazine and webmaster of floralartmall.com, Tricia (right above) and friend Carol  model the headbands  made for them by a floral artist from Rarotonga, at Pacifika.Method: The headband: Fold the soaked flax in half, or take the plastic strapping, so you have a strip about 1" wide, and put into a circle so it fits your head. The flax or strapping is overlapped and then sewn with needle and cotton to hold it into place. > For this month's lesson Try making the headband made for Tricia at Pacifika. Materials: The headband: Traditionally  flax leaves are used, but rolled newspaper, plastic strapping,and even old Christmas wrapping paper were all used! It seems that recycled materials are fine! The binding: Strips of flax or vine is again traditional but cotton thread, raffia, plastic raffia, celloptape and string are all used. If you are using newspaper instead take one full sheet and roll it from corner to corner, then size on your head and sew it into a circle shape with the two ends overlapping for at least 6".The band should be firm and strong at this point. Plant Material: Anything goes. Find small flowers, and foliage that looks good with it.Each picture has a decription to give you  The headband I am modelling, used 41 yellow marigolds 13 red marigolds, 14 sprigs of tiny white chrysanthemums, and 17 sprigs of maidenhair fern. Assembly There are two methods. The first is to make 15-20  little floral sprays, with two flowers, and a twig of greenery in each, bound together at the base with cotton. The second method is to have all your flowers and twigs cut into lengths about 14cm long. Attach your string, cotton, raffia or vine to the headband securely. Take a spray or individual flower and lay over the headband, then wind the string around it to secure it to the headband. Lay the next flower or spray over the first to completely cover the string, and repeat winding.  Do this all the way around, putting in flowers  and foliage as you go and keeping it all very tight with the binding. There is no set pattern, the artists all seemed to have a natural feel to add foliage, or change the flower colour.When you get right around  the headband, secure the string again and cut off. How to make it last This may sound brutal but it works! After wearing the piece in the hot sun for 6 hours, and then 9 hours in a hot car travelling home, the headpiece looked dead. I had been told  to totally immerse it in a basin of water. This I did overnight. In the morning, it was totally revived, and wearable again! I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it!  If you wish to display it after a day of wear, after the soak overnight, put it into a tray with a small amount of water, and it becomes a table centrepiece. Wouldn't it look great with a huge candle in the middle! Spray with water occasionally and it should last a week! The Cook Islands   You can see the direction of the floral sprays and how they have been laid over the last one. Pauline Arthur models her design. Helen Peyroux-Donaldson is a rose fan! She uses fully blooming roses, with tiny white chrysanthemums and a small amount of ladder fern in her creation Tahiti   Our shy model and her niece used  only rose buds and rose leaves for her entire headband. Underneath she used white plastic strapping as the base, and cotton to wrap it.. New Caledonia . Piata Allen, the gentleman in the top middle of this group photo made the headbands for his friends. All tertiary students in New Zealand this group are also wearing their national costumes.Piata made  his and two other headbands using New Zealand native coprosma  with flowers interspersed at sparse intervals, For the band he used rolled up newspaper and string to wrap the twigs. He also made a headpiece to wrap around the bun. He did it with a smaller band and the foliage and flowers were positioned at angles out from the band for this dramatic effect. Raratonga Joe Rapana is a New Zealand Maori, taught the art from his Rarotongan relatives.His newspaper and string base supported big lilies and scented lemon geranium for the foliage. Tuvalu Vaeluaga Iosefa from Tuvalu was working with the Creative NZ Council, who support the arts of the Pacific People.  His costume is made of Pandana leaves and those colours come from totally natural dyes! Sharing his culture and the story of a man wearing the headband he said each woman has her own style. When a woman wanted a man, she would weave a headband design, and if he wore it, it proclaimed to all that he was hers! Of course he could then take it off and "get caught" by another woman" Vaeluaga told us with a grin! The woman who had "caught him" at Pacifika used conifer as foliage with white carnations and a variety of annuals. Silk Flowers Carol models one of the many at Pacifika made with silk flowers. This was made on a base of Christmas paper and wrapped with cellotape.The artist uses white roses tipped with glitter, bright orange roses and green rose leaves. The Frangipani is real, the flower has a toothpick inserted into the stem and so it can go behind the ear.  And some fabulous books below to help you learn more...   Hawaiian Lei Making Step-By-Step Guide : Here is a complete photographic instruction guide and reference tool covering forty different lei making flowers, vines,  fruits, leaves and cones. A comprehensive background covers the origin of the lei, lei customs, the leis of each of the Hawaiian islands, six different lei making methods, as well as easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions.  More...   Ka Lei: The Leis of Hawaii Marie McDonald has not only created a book of beauty, but it is useful   as well. Her photographs of lei are outstanding, and she takes it to the next level with detailed instructions on how to make many of the lei More... Hawaiian Flower Lei Making (Kolowalu Book) This book is terrific! It is based and is by a native Hawaiian. Great step by step instructional. For more click here...