Artificial flowers

The correct forms and beautiful coloring of many natural colors make it possible to make them artificially from a wide variety of materials: wax , paper , various fabrics , leather , iron , tin and precious metals , beads , shells, porcelain and other materials.

Despite such a variety of materials, there are many similarities in production methods: when cutting a natural flower into its component parts, patterns are made, and for mass production, steel “punchings”, “forms” or “cuttings” corresponding to the patterns, which cut out flat sheets parts. These parts are rounded using metal or wooden balls with handles, the so-called "bulek", tint, if necessary, and collect the flower around the harvested central part of the flower, techniques corresponding to the properties of the material taken. Success depends on the artistic insight and observation of the performer: in natural colors there is never complete symmetry and monotony, the flowers turn out to be unnatural and ugly due to their excessive correctness and require final decoration by hand.

Fabric flowers

Fabrics for flowers are used such as polyester , natural silk , latex , soft, organza , parchment . If the material was not specially prepared at the factory, it must first be treated with starch (1 tablespoon of starch in 2 glasses of water) or gelatin (2 teaspoons per glass of water), dried and ironed with a hot iron.

Tint the already finished petals, when you need to get shades, but for roses and other colors, painted uniformly, the paint is added to the starch; usually used aniline dyes or compositions for batik. Starched fabric is folded once in 6 or 8 and sewn along the edges with a thread or thin wire. Then they cut out of it parts of a flower with special shapes, striking with a heavy wooden hammer. At the same time, it is necessary to cut the petals so that the largest dimensions fall obliquely relative to the warp and the weft, so that the fabric stretches well when rounded with "brooches." The cutting is followed by tinting of the moistened petals: paint is applied with a brush or simply with a finger and washed off with another brush, with water, as in watercolor painting. This is followed by squeezing the heated bulb on a pad or on a rubber plate. Veins can be squeezed out by hand, holding the petal in the palm of your hand and acting with the tips of tweezers or a special blunt, rounded "knife". In the case of mass production, the veins are squeezed out by machines consisting of a convex die and the corresponding concave matrix. To assemble a flower on the appropriate wire thickness, first strengthen the ovary and stamens, bought ready-made or molded from a mixture of thick gum arabic solution with an equal amount of starch. Then, the respective parts are glued in order at the base of the flower with the same paste or glue. The wire, depicting the stem, is wrapped spirally with a strip of corrugated paper, cloth, or covered with a green rubber tube.

Flowers of silk and tissue paper are made with similar techniques, but very simplified: the boules are not heated, and the petals are not usually tinted.

Fabric Fabrication Tool

Bulbs - steel balls mounted on metal rods. The number of used bottles, as a rule, not less than six. For example: 5,15,20,30 mm in diameter. Changing the size of balls 1–2 mm in one direction or another does not matter. There are no bulls on sale; they can be ordered from a metalworking or mechanical workshop for drawings. The beads process the rims, petals, sepals and, in some cases, the leaves, giving them a natural shape characteristic of the flower.

Curling knives - Single and strong. The working part of the knife is its tip. The cutting edges (edges) of the knives should be somewhat blunted in order to avoid the eruption of the fabric. When the cutting edge moves along the material with relatively light pressure, the knives should leave a clearly visible mark, and with greater pressure the knife should twist the material. Knives are made in a metalworking or mechanical workshop of steel wire (4-5 mm).

Single-core knife - a blunt, curved blade serves to process leaves and petals.

Strong knife - similar to single-core, but with two blades, which are obtained from the groove of the longitudinal grooves, in a dull steel blade. Necessary for processing reed petals, sepals, leaves

Hook - metal rod in the shape of a hook with a sophisticated tip. The hook is necessary for processing leaves and oblong petals.

Die - cutting - steel rods, allowing you to quickly and in large quantities cut the workpiece, replacing the scissors. Recommended for receiving corolla flowers with very small petals, such as forget-me-nots, lilacs, lily of the valley, cutting of which requires a lot of patience and time-consuming. Each carving should correspond to the shape of the corolla of a particular flower. Die cut, as well as boules and curling knives can be made in a metalworking or mechanical workshop.

Iron - metal parallelepiped with holes. A strip of nazhelatinina is pulled through the hole of the hot ironing; a dry, 0.5–1 cm wide strip of fabric cut in the lobar thread. This produces tubes that are used in the manufacture of phloxes , primroses , and chrysanthemums .

Wax Flowers

For wax flowers, white wax is melted in a water bath and for a moment immersed in a cold glass or metal plate, lightly spread with oil or soap. Wax freezes on the plate evenly; petals are cut from these plates. For the green parts of the flower and leaves, wax is tinted upon melting. You can bend the petals with wooden beads on the palm, and the warmth of the hand softens the wax sufficiently. Tint the petals with dry paints with feathers. Gather the parts of the flower on a wire, warming up the blind spots on a very small flame of an alcohol bulb with a wick of one thread.

Porcelain flowers

Porcelain flowers are made from porcelain mass with an admixture of dextrin. From this additive, it becomes so plastic that it can be rolled out into thin plates and form flowers like wax. At the first burning, the dextrin burns out, and the resulting “biscuit” is painted with the usual methods for porcelain.

Leather Flowers

Petals and leaves are cut out of the thin oafin, as well as a rough resemblance of the ovary and stamens; soaking the skin in lukewarm water and letting it dry slightly, bring it to a state in which it is easily drawn out, so that with the help of wooden bulls, a blunt knife and fingers, you can give parts the desired shape and, after drying, mark the veins with a heated blunt knife.

Iron Flowers

Tin flowers are made by stamping and soldering; then they are painted with lacquer paints. Flowers, forged from iron, as an ornament for trellises and monuments, are sometimes executed artistically. This art was developed at the end of the 15th and 16th centuries; in Venice , in Florence , in Vienna , Prague . Forged flowers do this: the end of the iron rod is dragged into a thin spatula, the contour is cut out of it with the help of chisels and arched on the appropriate bed plates, the veins are made and the stems of individual petals and leaves are successively welded into a common stem. Another technique is needed for the manufacture of cast metal colors. A natural flower, if it is sufficiently fleshy, or a wax model of a flower is surrounded by a molding compound, inserting where it should be to form paths for the molten metal and for air to escape. This form is dried and then slowly calcined: the model burns, and molten metal is poured into the resulting void. For casting from silver, bronze and low-melting metals, take a mixture of 3 parts of burnt gypsum, 1 part of crushed brick, mixed with an aqueous solution of equal parts of ammonia and alum. To remove the ash left over from the burning of the model, it is poured into the form of mercury, in which the ash floats.

Plastic Flowers

In the 50s of the XX century, they began to produce flowers from plastic. Nowadays, plastic blanks are mainly made from harvesting ovaries and stamens, stems, and also some flowers (anthurium, calla lilies, phalaenopsis leaves, etc.).

Soap Flowers

Soap flowers are made in two ways. Cutting: a bar of layered colored soap is set in a lathe, and a flower is formed in round grooves. The finished flower is symmetrical and correct, but the flowers are not the same and look like hand-made flowers. Shaping: less oil soap is ground into powder and mixed with water. This paste is used as a material for modeling. The leaves and the structure of the petal imprinted on the soap.

Polymer clay flowers

Flowers are made from special polymer clay, adding paint to the clay. In Russia, the art of creating flowers from polymer clay is now called “ ceramic floristics ”.

• Lermantov V.V. Artificial flowers // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 tons (82 tons and 4 extra). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Musician Anna, Gurza Kupavka. All about artificial colors. (Neopr.) (2008). The date of circulation is January 31, 2008. Archived March 3, 2012.