A few weeks ago, I built the Golden Rose as a Valantine’s gift for my wife. It’s a beautiful model, and she really liked it. But then I realized I had created a couple of challenges for her as well. Where to put it and how to keep it safe? I mean, yeah, a vase would possibly work, but this rose is rather top heavy, and a vase wouldn’t really protect it that much, right?

So I got to thinking… my wife is beautiful, I’m kinda beastly… why not take inspiration from Beauty and the Beast? And so the hunt was on. I decided I needed to find a glass cloche / bell jar. And you know what? There are a ton of pre-made roses in bell jars that you can buy… but they are all much too small for this giant rose (though they did give me the inspiration to add the fairy lights to the end result). Of course, if I wanted to spend a lot of money, I could get one of the expensive / fancy ones, but even then, a narrow and tall one was not common. And my wife would be less than pleased at the expense (even if it was for her). She’s the smarter one of the two of us.

Bonus game: find the photo where I forgot to hide the battery pack.

But I finally came across the perfect one, sold in stores at Michaels. I just had to drive 25 miles to a Michaels that actually stocked it. But it was well worth it. Once I got home, I drilled a tight-fit hole through the base and squeezed the rose stem through. To no surprise, the hole wasn’t straight (because I don’t have a drill press), so I had to force-bend the stem to get the rose mostly centered at the top. It says you can bend the stem for a more natural shape, but wow… it takes a lot to bend that thing. Finished up by cutting a groove into the side of the hole for the lights, shoving the strand through (and re-inserting the stem), and then carefully draping the lights. I’m quite pleased with the result and thought I’d share.

And for those of you tracking my ISS build, don’t worry, that’s still going. This was just a brief Sunday afternoon project, I’ve also worked on the ISS and am working on the blog post for the last build sessions.