I made these lovely little white Alstroemeria flowers for a photoshoot I recently had the pleasure of being part of – photos to come shortly!
The flowers were easy to make with only 6 petals, but painting all the tiny speckles was quite time consuming.
I love Alstroemerias, they are jolly little flowers and remind me of my own wedding bouquet.
2 June 2021
A lovely little bunch of pale yellow double tulips and dried Canary grasses in my great, great grandfather’s mustard pot! The pot is part of a cruet set he won for his prize vegetables back in the 1940s.
I used the bark from the Mahonia shrub in my garden to make a rich yellow dye. It only takes a second to turn the tissue paper a lovely pale yellow. I dipped the edges of the paper and left the the central strip white to get the two tone effect on the petals.
8 April 2021
My first bouquet of paper flowers!
I love the delicate pastel colours of the different roses put together – so beautiful.
I have also made some off-white paper fern and simple leaves to imitate the bleached leaves that are trending in wedding bouquets at the moment.
The Pampas grasses came from a garden where my husband works and the Canary grasses are grown in Britain. I plan to start growing my own grasses this year which will help to make my bouquets even more homemade.
The bouquet is tied with ribbon made from soft cotton dyed with the same pear bark dye as the hybrid tea roses.
10 March 2021
A very quick look at how I make my tissue paper roses.
The petal templates were copied from a real rose. Here I have used onion skin dyed paper for the 37 petals. The petals are curled and then attached to a Midelino stick using homemade glue.
Red cabbage makes a lovely purple colour but by adding a little ordinary cooking bicarbonate of soda it turns a teal colour. Red cabbage is ph sensitive, it turns pink with vinegar! I then over dyed the pale orange onion dyed paper with the cabbage to produce an olive green.
The sepals are made from the green tissue. And the stem is covered with thin strips wound around it.
8 March 2021
Beautiful paper roses and buds made from tissue paper coloured with pear bark dye.
3 March 2021
More roses!!
The yellow petals are dyed with Gorse flowers, the orange stamens dyed with dried onion skins, and the green sepals and stems dyed with onion and then over dyed with red cabbage. All glued together with homemade glue on natural Midelino sticks. Totally biodegradable!
8 February 2021
Three beautiful paper hybrid tea shaped roses with delicate pink centres.
The pink dye came from sloe berries I picked last autumn then frozen to use later. The paper for the outer petals was also dipped briefly in the dye but then turned a slight grey colour when dried. Unfortunately they just look white in the photos. All part of the experimenting fun!
1 February 2021
As this is a new venture for me, I first practise new flowers with plain tissue paper. Adjusting the petal shapes, sizes and numbers needed to produce a flower that I’m happy with.
I make petal templates cut out of card and an instruction sheet to remind me.
25 January 2021
Before I start looking into and purchasing new eco friendly materials I have decided to do my experimenting and design practising with things I already have. So these first flowers are made from ordinary florists white tissue paper and glued with PVA adhesive. The petals and leaves are coloured with natural plant dyes, but the leaves are also painted with an extra watercolour wash to make them a darker green.
13 January 2021