most of the girls went to Hobby Lobby and bought candle holder bases...they said they had a lot of different kinds...I could get to a store so bought a lamp base and took it apart. all the leaves and pedals have wire in them and it takes quite a while to sew them all together. the blue leaves around the middle do not have the wire. Everything is hot glued on and the teacher said hers has lasted 3 years and hasn't fallen apart. I put sand in the middle of wool pin cushion cuz I like it. A couple of girls have cats so left off the trailing yarn and put a bird and birds nest on instead. That was really clever also...