Making the flowers.

Making the flowers

To begin with it was my idea to make the flowers out of organza, this is because it is a cheap and versatile material and has a nice effect when it is burnt and bunched together. By cutting the fabric into different size circles and holding the edges over candle it circles around and creates a flower like edge. they can be then layered in size order and sewn together in the centre to hold them in place. I pitched a sample flower from a shimmery pink organza, which Hayley really liked, so we each went ahead with a different shade of organza each and made a selection of flowers each (some of the ones I made are shown below)

Organza flowers put together in a bunch. 

I designed these white flowers to look a bit more elegant. They were made from plastazote, as same as the leaves but left blank, they were made form a few different oval pieces and secured with hot glue, for the stamen I used the same green wire as the stem and cut out a curved triangle for the Pollen and stuck it round the wire. Some of the leaves I made a bit bigger, this was to fill in more space and create a fuller looking plant.

We decided that as we do have a lot of space to fill with flowers it would probably be best if we had some that are of a much bigger size, although the organza des look really nice, we thought maybe we should use something that is a bit more opaque. As felt is very cheap, we thought this could work for making some of the larger items. It can be cut into loads of different shades and stuck quickly with a hot glue gun. I had originally made the leaves from painted paper but I wanted to try something else with a bit more thickness to it. Abbie suggested that we use plastazote, this is a foam like material that can be heated with a heat gun and then folded or bent into different shapes. It wouldn't hold any colour unless it is primed first, I made a large selection of leaves and then coated them in a layer of Covent Garden primer with a paint brush, after drying they could then be painted with acrylic and it wouldn't flake off. For the stems of the flowers we used a strong garden wire that can be bent into place, the flowers could then easily be stuck onto one end with a blob of hot glue and then leaves could start to be built up on the stems, also securing them with hot glue. I experimented with some different colours and textures for my felt flowers and spent a lot of time painting and putting everything together. We then decided that instead of having flower pots we would put the flowers in tins and egg boxes. Once I had quite a substance bunch of flowers I hot glued them into the tins so that they were held firmly in place.

Yellow flower plant put together.

Close up of one of the Leaves.

Yellow flowers:

I made these yellow flowers by layering 5 petals, making a slight pleat in the middle, one the next level I layered 4 slightly smaller petals. For the stamen I scrunched up this black mesh fabric and secured it with hot glue.

White flowers:

I designed these white flowers to look a bit more elegant. They were made from plastazote, as same as the leaves but left blank, they were made form a few different oval pieces and secured with hot glue, for the stamen I used the same green wire as the stem and cut out a curved triangle for the Pollen and stuck it round the wire. Some of the leaves I made a bit bigger, this was to fill in more space and create a fuller looking plant.

Both finished plants

Making the leaves:
This is the leaves after they had been primed with Covent garden primer and then painted using a range of different greens, browns, yellows and black for the finer details.