Simulated floral bouquet and method of manufacture
A simulated floral bouquet where each flower is an infant care item configured to simulate a flower.
Simulated floral bouquet of simulated flowers and method of manufacture wherein each flower is comprised of an infant care item configured to simulate a flower.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThere are few events in life that evoke a sense of the miraculous more than the birth of a first child. For the parents there may well be a feeling of inexpressible joy. Grandparents, siblings and friends have a long awaited the blessed happening. In the months preceding the birth, baby shower parties are often scheduled where friends and well wishers gather to celebrate the coming of a new life into this world. Most new parents have to start from scratch gathering infant care items such as baby socks, diapers, infant garments, and a host of other small items associated with the care of a new born baby. The shower parties often provide an opportunity to help create a layette for the newborn child. A common approach is to fill a basket with a collection of disparate wrapped and unwrapped infant care items, to resemble a fruit basket. Ribbons around the packaged items and bows on the bushel itself complete the baby shower gift basket. Baby shower baskets are extremely common, as is evidenced by an internet search for “baby shower basket” which revealed about 31,700 internet sites, all of which in one way or another offered an assemblage of items that would prove useful to a new parent. These baskets and their contents, though useful as gifts, provide no inherent novelty of a patentable nature, other than the basket structure that holds an aggregate of packaged and unpackaged baby care items. An example of a uniquely designed gift basket is typified by the Joyce Dennehy Design Pat. No. D413,441 issued Sep. 7, 1999. Its pleasing ornamental appearance made it worthy of a patent. A baby shower display devise is shown and described in the DeBartola, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,200 ('200) issued Jul. 16, 1991. The invention in the '200 patent is directed to a method of fashioning a basic display structure by covering an inflated balloon with fibrous material that is made to harden by means of the application of glue which hardens when dried. Deflation of the balloon results in the creation of a hardened housing that may have a portion removed and allow baby shower items to be displayed therein.
Few things in life gladden the heart of a flower lover more than a floral bouquet, whether the floral bouquets are dandelions gathered together in the hand of a five year old as a gift or the bridal bouquet in the hands of a bride, as she moves in a wedding processional to the altar where vows are to be exchanged. What enchants the viewer is not so much the precise detail of each flower standing alone but the overall appearance of posies in the child's hand or the hands of the bride, symbolically covered, along with her face, as she approaches the altar and the groom.
In an elegantly simple manner, the instant invention provides a simulated bouquet of infant care items wherein the identity of each infant care item is obscured when first viewed, because each infant care item has been configured to simulate a flower.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe invention is directed to a simulated floral bouquet, where each flower is an infant care item configured to simulate a flower.
The floral bouquet is comprised of a plurality of infant care items, each configured to simulate a flower. Each simulated flower is secured to a support structure and the support structures are gathered together to simulate a floral bouquet of infant care items. The support structure of each simulated flower is gathered together with the bases of all the support structures by means of a support element. The support element may be a mass of material that may be readily engaged by a base of each support structure. The infant care items that are configured to simulate a flower may include such diverse items as diapers, socks, infant garments, etc.
It is therefore a primary object of the invention to provide a simulated floral bouquet of infant care items, each configured to simulate a flower.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method of making a simulated flower by configuring infant care items to simulate a flower secured to a simulated stem.
The invention further contemplates a method of manufacturing individual simulated flowers and floral bouquets where the flowers are derived from infant care items configured as flowers. The method of manufacture of a single simulated flower broadly involves the following steps:
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- providing an infant care item;
- providing an elongated support structure to simulate a stem;
- securing the infant care item to an end of the elongated support structure;
- configuring the infant care item to simulate a flower on a stem
The description set forth above, as well as other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more fully appreciated by referring to the detailed description and the drawings that follow. The description is the presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiment in accordance with the present invention, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings:
Reference is now made to
At first glance the simulated floral bouquet of
Attention is now directed to FIGS. 2 to 8 which illustrate the sequential fabrication of a simulated flower 20 seen in
Turning now to
Turn now to
Another species of the invention is shown in FIGS. 9 to 12. In this species of the invention the infant care item is a pair of infant socks 31, 32. In order to configure the socks 31, 32 into a simulated flower 30, sock 32 is inserted into sock 31, to create a nested sock pair, as shown in
Yet another species of the invention is illustrated in FIGS. 13 to 16. The infant care item involved in this species is a diaper 41. The diaper 41 is shown enlarged in this figure. In a manner similar to the infant T-shirt 21 of
Turning now to
It should also be understood that a number of infant care items such as a bottle brush, a stuffed animal, a pacifier to name a few may be included with simulated floral bouquets embodying the invention. Florists would also find significant utility in clustering a number of individual infant care simulated flowers in flower arrangements being sent to new mothers and fathers.
Though the invention has been described with respect to a pair of specific embodiments, many variations and modifications will immediately become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is therefore the intention that the appended claims be interpreted as broadly as possible, in view of the prior art, to include such variations and modifications.
Claims
1. A simulated floral bouquet comprising:
- a plurality of infant care items each configured to simulate a flower;
- each simulated flower being secured to a support structure;
- the support structures gathered together at a base of each thereof to simulate a floral bouquet of infant care items.
2. The simulated floral bouquet of claim 1 wherein the support structure of each simulated flower is gathered together with the bases of all simulated flower support structures by means of a support element.
3. The simulated floral bouquet of claim 2 wherein the support element is a mass of material that may be readily engaged by a base of each support structure to thereby establish the simulated floral bouquet.
4. The simulated floral bouquet of claim 3 wherein the support structure is a rod having an infant care item configured to simulate a flower secured to one end thereof, remote from the support structure base.
5. The simulated floral bouquet of claim 4 wherein the mass of material is in the form of a block.
6. The simulated floral bouquet of claim 4 wherein at least one of the infant care items is a diaper.
7. The simulated floral bouquet of claim 4 wherein at least one of the infant care items is a pair of socks nested one within the other.
8. The simulated floral bouquet of claim 4 wherein at least one of the infant care items is an infant garment.
9. A method of creating a simulated floral bouquet of simulated flowers comprising the following steps:
- (a) providing a plurality of infant care items;
- (b) providing an elongated support structure to simulate a stem for each infant care item;
- (c) securing each infant care item to an end of each elongated support structure;
- (d) configuring each infant care item to simulate a flower;
- (e) gathering together the elongated support structures at ends remote from the simulated flower to thereby simulate a floral bouquet of simulated flowers, each comprised of an infant care items.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein the manner in which the infant care item is to be secured to an end of the elongated structure includes the following steps:
- (a) spreading out the infant care item in a way that presents the infant care item in a generally flattened shape;
- (b) physically coupling the end of an elongated structure to the generally flattened infant care item in a region adjacent to an edge thereof.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein the configuring of each infant care item to simulate a flower includes the following steps:
- (a) rolling the flattened infant care item onto the end of the elongated structure to form a rolled, generally cylindrically shaped, infant care item on the end of the elongated support structure;
- (b) wrapping the cylindrically shaped infant care item with a flexible element, to thereby reduce and hold the cylindrical diameter of the rolled infant care item adjacent the end of the elongated support structure, while simultaneously causing the other end of the rolled infant care item to expand, thereby simulating petals of an opening flower.
12. The method of claim 9 wherein the configuring of at least one infant care item to simulate a flower includes the following steps:
- (a) providing a pair of infant socks;
- (b) inserting one sock of the pair into the other sock in such a manner that an ankle portion of the inserted sock partially extends there from, thereby creating a nested sock pair;
- (c) physically coupling the end of the elongated structure to a foot portion of the nested sock pair in such a manner that the ankle portion of the nested sock pair extends at an angle from a foot region of the nested socks, thereby simulating a flower on a stem.
13. A method of making an infant care item simulated flower on a stem, comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing an infant care item;
- (b) providing an elongated support structure to simulate a stem;
- (c) securing the infant care item to an end of the elongated support structure;
- (d) configuring the infant care items to simulate a flower on a stem.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the manner in which the infant care item is to be secured to an end of the elongated structure includes the following steps:
- (a) spreading out the infant care item in a way that presents the infant care item in a generally flattened shape;
- (b) physically coupling the end of an elongated structure to the generally flattened infant care item in a region adjacent to an edge thereof.
15. The method of claim 14 wherein the configuring of each infant care item to simulate a flower includes the following steps:
- (a) rolling the flattened infant care item onto the end of the elongated structure to form a rolled, generally cylindrical shaped, infant care item on the end of the elongated support structure;
- (b) wrapping the cylindrically shaped infant care item with a flexible element to thereby reduce and maintain the cylindrical diameter of the rolled infant care item adjacent the end of the elongated support structure, while simultaneously causing the other end of the rolled infant care item to expand, thereby simulating petals of an opening flower.
16. The method of claim 13 wherein the configuring of the infant care item to simulate a flower includes the following steps:
- (a) providing a pair of infant socks;
- (b) inserting one sock of the pair into the other sock in such a manner that an ankle portion of the inserted sock partially extends there from, thereby creating a nested sock pair;
- (c) physically coupling the end of the elongated structure to a foot portion of the nested sock pair in such a manner that the ankle portion of the nested sock pair extends at an angle from a foot region of the nested socks, thereby simulating a flower on a stem.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 26, 2003
Publication Date: May 26, 2005
Inventor: Rachel Hughes (Slippery Rock, PA)
Application Number: 10/721,674