Ronghua Tutorial: How to Make Spring Time Essential Oil Diffuser

Soft pink blossoms, fresh scents, and the feeling of spring quietly returning — this Springtime Oil Diffuser brings all of that into a single, delicate piece. With handcrafted petals and tiny porous stones that slowly release your favorite essential oils, it’s both a decoration and a breath of calm.

Preparation: What You’ll Need

If you’ve purchased our Ronghua Toolkit, you already have everything required!
If not, prepare the following tools:

1. Bristle brush (Medium to soft hardness)
2. Flat iron (the one you use to straighten your hair)
3. Tweezers
4. At least 2 pairs of Scissors
5. wooden sticks / pencils / chopsticks
6. Hair spray or diluted white glue (1:1.15–1:1.2 ratio)
7. Big clips (around 15cm)
8. Twisting boards and wooden blocks (for even tension)
9. Anti-slip powder (optional but helpful)

Full Tutorial Video

Step 1. Align and Arrange the Silk Threads

Start by untying your silk threads. Locate the knot at one end of each bundle and cut it open carefully. This project uses 4 colours of silk to create 3 silk rows.  Refer to the colour diagram below for thread combination details.

Step 2. Group and Prepare the Threads

Each silk bundle consists of tiny strand-like structures — these are your individual strands. 

Align all strands neatly and tie them around a thin stick, keeping the ends even. Avoid uneven lengths — this ensures consistent texture later on.

Step 3. Make Silk Rows

Repeat the above process to create three silk rows in total. Remember to refer back to the data provided in the diagram for the following rows, as each will differ slightly. Below are the finished silk rows we made. 

Step 4. Brush the Silk Rows

Fix one silk row onto your stand using big metal clips - if you don't have the wooden ronghua stand, that's totally fine! You can refer to our video about alternative solutions to the stand.

Hold the ends of the threads with one hand and brush gently but firmly from top to bottom. Don’t lift the brush midway. A light mist of water will prevent static. You can apply some pressure — silk threads are stronger than they look! Make sure to brush both the front and back sides until the row looks smooth and fluffy. 

Everyone uses a different brush and hand speed, so the time it takes to complete this step is also different. Take myself as reference, it took me about 10 minutes to brush this silk row. When you feel the hair is soft and fluffy, you can stop and check. When there is no complete linear distinction between the threads, it's ready:) 

Step 5. Attach Copper Wires

When you feel that the silk is brushed enough, secure its tail with another big clip to your table or anything that can help stretch it taut. Take out one copper wire from the folded end of the row and straighten it. Twist the folded part into a spiral of about 3 cm. Clamp the silk threads between two copper wires and twist the opposite side tightly. Pull both wires taut and continue twisting until they merge into one. Remember, the twisting direction for the left and right end are opposite. 

The spacing should be as shown in step 1. 

If you have anti-slip powder, it will be much easier to dip your fingers in it and twist it. 

We highly recommend you watch the video tutorial for this step:)

Once done, remove the silk row from the stand and lay it flat.

Step 6. Cut the Silk Strips

Trim the row’s end neatly, then cut between each pair of copper wires to create even silk strips. When cutting, the scissors must be placed in the middle of two copper wires, otherwise the width of the silk strips will be inconsistent.

If threads stick to your scissors, clean them — it’s usually caused by static or residue. Cut quickly and cleanly for smooth edges. Don't touch the wire or it may get displaced.

Step 7. Center and Twist the Strips

Align the copper wire to the middle of each strip using a flat surface or wooden block.
Once centered, twist both hands in opposite directions to tighten.

Next, place the copper part between the twisting boards and continue twisting in the same direction. Stop when the wire feels firm — twisting too far may cause it to break. How do you know if it is tightened enough? If tightened properly, the copper wire should only faintly show. If the copper wire is very visible, it’s not tight enough.

Step 8. Flatten the Strips

Cut the blue/yellow strips in half, these are for the leaves. For the strips used to make the small buds, cut them in half as well. For the rest, fold the trimmed strip in half, making sure the bottom edges align cleanly. Twist them tightly, then use tweezers to smooth out the fibers.

Flatten all of them with a mini iron.

Then we need to soak the flattened strips.

Prepare your setting solution:

1. Use either hair spray, or
2. Diluted white glue (1:1.15 or 1:1.2 ratio)

Soak the flattened strips in hair-gel solution. Ensure that the liquid fully penetrates the fibers. Wipe off the excess gel.

Step 9. Make the Petals

There are several kinds of leaves and petals.

The large flower has two layers of petals. The first layer is smaller, it's for the row with 1.8cm spacing. The second is bigger, and it's made of the row with 2cm spacing.

Shape the petals for the first layer when they are still wet. Trim the petals so that it's pointy on both sides, then dab it on the front with a ball stylus to give it the petal shape.

For the second layer, just let it dry after applying setting liquid. Trim it into a similar shape like the first layer, but don't dab it with a ball stylus.

Once dry, shape the strips for leaves (blue and yellow ones) into a long, thin shape, pointed on both ends like leaves.

For bud petals, they should be more rounded on the top, and only pointy at the bottom.

Below is the shapes of different leaves and petals. Top left is for second layer of the large flower. Top right is for the first layer of the large flower. Bottom left is for the leaves. Bottom right is for the buds.

Now we start curving the strips with a mini iron again. For leaves and bud petals, simply bend them a little to give them a little curve. 

For the petals on the second layer of the large flowers, the curving is a little complicated. 

We recommend you to watch the video tutorial for this one:)

 

Step 10. Make the Flowers

Make 10 beaded strings: thread one bead with copper wire, then twist it to secure it.

We start to make the buds: a bud has 4 petals in total, 3 facing inward and 1 facing outward, so it looks like it's almost blooming. Bind them together with silk thread. Make 5 of these in total.

For the flowers:

First, take out some stamens and bind them with silk thread. Then use tweezers to bend the stamens slightly.

The first layer of petals has 4 petals facing inward, and 1 bundle of stamens in the middle. Then, put the larger petals on the second layer. Always wrap one petal at a time. Make 6 large flowers in total.

Cut the wires at the bottom at an angle and finish by wrapping all the way down.

Here is the picture of all the components you will need for the final piece.

Step 11. Assemble the Piece

Now you can assemble the branches. There is no fixed number of leaves, so do it however you like. Fix the bead and the leaves together. Arrange the leaves and the buds in a stagger, preferably facing different directions. 

To finish invisibly, fold a piece of 0.3 mm copper wire (or just silk thread) in half and place it at the point where you last wrapped. Continue wrapping forward to cover the copper wire. Thread the silk through the copper wire loop and pull the copper wire out. Trim off the extra silk thread and lightly burn any frayed ends.

To make the branch with a large flower, put the leaves and flower in a stagger as well, with the flower at the bottom. You can add to the length by adding a thicker copper wire, with also helps with support. Finish with the above-mentioned technique as well.

Assemble different branches together and wrap them with silk thread, again finish invisibly.

Step 12. Final Adjustments

Use tweezers to adjust the general shape.

Put the finished piece into the diffusing stones. And that's it, your Ronghua Essential Oil Diffuser is complete!