Saturday, December 29, 2012

What about a leather flower?

I purchased some differently coloured leather pieces back in November and could not find time to turn them into flowers. Finally time has been chosen and last week I tried my luck in creating my first real leather flower. It is a cross breed between a rose and a camellia. Well I think it is a rose but my husband said it looked more like a camellia. It is made of greyish beige genuine leather including a pair of leaves. For the leaves to stand out and not to blend with the petals I tinted them lightly with a golden spray. The leather camellia is finished with a brooch pin (see pictures). I must say it is a perfect accessory for the winter period when silk flowers are somewhat fragile and light. The leather corsage would look good not only decorating an outfit, but a belt or a handbag too.
Here are some pictures of the leather camellia flower brooch



You can always order a custom flower from my Etsy shop.
Please stay updated with my latest news through my Facebook page

And a Happy New Year to you! :-)




Wednesday, December 12, 2012

A large tea-coloured rose

Please be kindly informed that we have moved! To read new blog posts, purchase our floral pieces and learn more about how to make flowers you are welcome to visit out new website.

I must say as an artist I am attracted not so much by the colour but more so by the form in silk flower making. I salivate at the perspective of learning how to make a new type of flower whether it be a humble lilly-of-the-valley, hydrangeas, fuchsias, plumerias, a grape leaf  or a twig of a fur-tree. All of them sound equally attractive. Of course one must not forget roses. Firstly, people seem to be fascinated by this flower which makes it first choice for weddings, birthdays, other important events. Secondly the rose has so many faces, so many different shapes and sizes ranging from a small 5-petal simple flower to a complicated layer-upon-layer-of-petals rosette. This diversity of rose shapes is also very appealing to me.
Please click here for more hand crafted roses

To read more please click here

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Have you got Christmas wrapped up?

As Christmas is drawing nearer and the festive mood is trying to take over despite the looming perspective of moving house later this week I would like to make the shopping experience more pleasant for those of us, well, who are sill looking for gifts :-)
Ta-da!
I am pleased to announce FREE GIFT WRAP and FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING on hand crafted items bought from MY ETSY SHOP until 31 December 2012 by using LOCALSHIP12 code.
Merry Christmas folks!
You can always follow my news by liking my Facebook page on the right without even leaving my blog page )))


Wednesday, December 5, 2012

A bunch of dahlias

Please be kindly informed that we have moved! To read new blog posts, purchase our floral pieces and learn more about how to make flowers you are welcome to visit out new website.

Last week was a dahlia week. Sometimes that happens. Poppy week, peony week, some other flower week.  So I started off by making a realistic dahlia on a stem. And here is the picture of it 

I used pure silk satin for petals and pure silk cosmosatin for leaves and calyx.

Because I needed to make a flower as a gift to one of my friends, I thought it would be a good idea to make another dahlia but this time probably a fantasy one. As I have discovered lond time ago by making 2 flowers at a time it is possible to save  quite a lot of time so whenever possible I always try to make 2 similar flowers at the same time. So for one a light golden pure silk satin has been chosen (plus shantung  the colour of old gold  for leaves), and intense Royal blue pure silk satin for the other one (along with viscose velvet in black to light blue gradation of colour for leaves and calyx).
Here are the 2 fantasy dahlias which I came up with


The golden dahlia has been successfully posted to my friend in Russia. The blue one is actually available for purchase at my Etsy shop at the moment.
Do you think I was through with the dahlias at that moment? I thought so too :-)
But on Friday I got a like-snow-in-July birthday party invitation from my other friend. As you understand the gift HAD to be handmade! So, another dahlia! This time, though, with other variations on material. Again, pure silk satin for petals, in rich dark chocolate colour with hints of burgundy/ The leaves and calyx have been made of hand painted lace and doubled with thin Japanese lining silk.  I tried to paint them in rich brown and intense berry colours. Here is the forth dahlia


The gift has been presented and we should have some photo feedback soon :-)
This chocolate brown dahlia is available to order. Please contact me via my Facebook page or my website shop  if you would like one.
Or, maybe you want one inn a completely different colour? What would it be?

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Roses, roses, roses

Rose is the queen of the flower world or so it seems. And although I personally like a lot of rather different flowers it is very difficult to resist the fascination the rose possesses. Especially if it has a nice flower shape. Especially if it has a scent. Especially if it has a historic charm about it. This is all true about the Old English rose as it has it all: great shape, smell, heritage and diversity.
Here is the English rose in silk.
The rose is hand made from scratch of pure silk fabrics (crepe and dupioni) and hand painted using colours for silk.
 The Old English rose with an open flower shape would look beautiful as a hair accessory or a wedding dress embellishment.
 Other colour options are possible as it is hand painted
The rose can be mounted on a hair clip or a comb, made as a brooch etc.
What do you think about it? Does it look an Old English rose to you?