Artificial flowers are artificial versions of natural flowers and used for commercial and residential decoration. They might be also used for scientific purposes.
Materials used for artificial flowers have a great deal of variety: Shavings of stained horns, painted linen, rice paper, gold, silver, silk, coloured feathers, tinted shells and wax. Modern technology has made artificial flowers from carved soap, Nylon net stretched on wire frames, injection plastic moldings that are mass produced and ground clay.
Polyester is the main material for manufacture of artificial flowers from the 1970’s. Majority of artificial flowers in the market today are created from Polyester.
The various types of manufacture include the following:
Paper and Polyester flowers are made by following steps:
- The Polyester fabric is put in Gelatin to stiffen it.
- Cut the fabric into shapes like flower petals and leaves, mostly done by scissors.
- Silk screen printing using Dyes is done to get impression of veins on leaves.
- Rounded shape for petals is achieved by goffering irons of different shapes.
- Assemble petals and other parts of flower, created from centre outwards.
- Mount the flowers on a stalk of iron or brass wrapped with suitable material.
Nylon Stockings Flowers:
- Made from simple and inexpensive methods for stunning results
- First introduced in the US in 1970’s, popularity spread to Japan.
- Now, it is popular in Asia, Europe and Australia.
- With availability of new materials and colours, new possibilities for art making flowers have emerged.
- Basic materials required are stem wire, wire, nylon threading, nylon stocking, stamen and floral tape.
- Some flowers require cotton balls, white glue, paint brushes and acrylic paint.
Soap:There are two types:
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Carved: on a lathe, a bar of coloured, layered soap is mounted and they chisel circular grooves into it. It results in regular and symmetric flowers but flowers are far from identical and thus can be termed as handmade.
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Moulded: A soap which is oil-less is milled to a powder form and combined with water to make a paste that can be used for moulding. Petal and leaf structures are rolled on to or stamped on the soap. This is a labour intensive and expensive process.
Clays:Clay flowers are handmade from cold porcelain or special polymer clay, paint glue, steel wire, tape, and occasionally foam and paper as filler. Special tools like cutters are used to fashion the soft clay. After it dries, the petals can be painted and formed into a flower. These flowers can be totally realistic if made by a skilled artisan.
Glass:Glass flowers are more contemporary and stylized. Glass is blown and melted to assume different shapes. Working with glass at high temperature is a very difficult, labour intensive process. Thus, glass flowers are among the most expensive artificial flowers
Silk:Silk flowers are perhaps the most attractive of artificial flowers. They are made from a protein fibre spun by the silk worm.
Silk flowers can add a dash of colour into any drab room. Silk flowers of today are fashioned with unprecedented fidelity to botanical versions. Though termed as silk, they use more synthetic fabrics than real silk.
After cutting the fabric, it is pressed over hated moulds that are fashioned by experts. The fibres are melted into artificial flowers, which maintain the shape of real flowers.
If one doesn’t like artificial flowers, one can send fresh flowers by post in UK. Otherwise, artificial ones will be much appreciated for their beauty as well as durability.
