My flower making tools

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 here

If you wish to order a set of flower making tools please click here.

Those of you who admire handmade silk flowers might have thought about making them yourselves and wondered what magical equipment is required to do the job. So today I would like to give you an insight into the tools I am using for making my flowers.

My set consists of tools which belong to both the European and the Japanese flower making schools. They have been acquired over a couple of years through different makers. The best tools are thought to be made of brass as it holds the heat better than stainless steel that is why my tools look yellowish brown in the picture.

A soldering iron is needed to work with these brass heads. There are a number of round heads of different diameter, several knives, a rat-tail tool, a tool for making hollow tubes and another one for making lily-of-the-valley tiny flowers, as well as a number of curved both smooth and grooved Japanese tools.

All of them are used to achieve a certain effect on different sized petals and leaves and the choice usually depends on the particular job to be done. For a more impressive result the tools are used on rubber pads which vary in thickness and density.

Oversized flowers: to dare or not to dare

It seems that I create my flowers faster than I write about them :-) Which is probably not bad!

I have noticed that there are quite a lot of oversized flowers found in bridal and fashion collections. They can be worn as hair accessories, as waist line decoration or an arm corsage. Pinterest is full of ideas and photos.

So I have decided to try and make one myself. In fact I have another thought about an oversized flower which is more fluffy and airy but this version is all noble, regular and smooth. 

The flower is a large fantasy camellia about 15 cm in diameter which looks like a small hat in itself.

I painted it in shades of blush pink and mounted it on a headband.

The flower is made of silk satin, the leaves are made of lace and doubled with silk organza.

The headband (as always) is wrapped with thin silk.

All the fabrics and the lace used have been painted by hand.

I believe that this hat is a unique and delicate accessory to complete a bridal image and does look very nice when worn.

It can be purchased from my shop on Etsy

Please share your opinion on this new design of mine in the comments below.

A bridal halo with double cherry blossom

Well, you have probably noticed that recently I have created quite a number of wedding designs. Although, I love to create bridal accessories as much as flowers for other occasions and even for every day, the reason I am concentrating on the wedding theme is because in a month (exactly a month from today!) I am taking part in a large Wedding fair in this new for me area. The Drayton Old Lodge Wedding Fair is held on 17 March at this elegant Edwardian manor house just 10 minutes drive from central Norwich. I have been placed in the Vintage room, which is another reason to concentrate on bridal floral accessories with a vintage feel to them.

Here is the creation of the last week: an open bridal wreath with double cherry blossom in soft pinks and mellow yellows. I used habotai for flowers and pongee for twigs (all 100% pure silk). As always I hand painted all the elements using colours for silk. The size of the wreath can be regulated with a silk ribbon at the back which is useful because you can wear it higher or lower depending on how you like it.

A similar wreath can be made with just white flowers or maybe only pink depending on the colour scheme of a wedding. The bridal wreath can be purchased from my Etsy shop.

I do find this floral garland very romantic i must say. And what is your opinion?

Bridal choker necklace with a silk rose

There are many ways to use silk flower for decoration that have developed over the long period that the silk flowers have been around. Some of them are more obvious like brooches, corsages, hair clips, some are less. Another direction I am constantly working on apart from the diversity of the floral  form  is the diversity of application of these gorgeous creations. Here is one more way of using a handmade silk flower: a silk choker or a necklace.

This silk choker necklace is a perfect addition to a romantic bridal image "a la Marie Antoinette" and will work particularly well with an strapless corset wedding dress. As always I have created the rose from scratch and it can be customised to a wedding theme in terms of colour. The size of the chocker necklace is regulated by silk ribbons at the back.

Here is the picture of the silk bridal choker:

And that is how it looks when I am wearing it:

Similar chokers can be seen in the Ian Stuart collection named Revolution Rocks.

A bunch of grapes

I truly believe that a really great silk flower artist should be able to create diverse things. Yes, everybody loves roses. Yes, bridal accessories are always in demand. But one can not just make roses or white bridal flowers although I am not saying they have to be taken of the list. No way! But sometimes I want to take a break from popular designs and make something wacky, unconventional, but cute :-)

For a long time I was planning to make a brooch with grapes. I saw it in several books of mine as an interior  arrangement of a grape vine in a vase. But I wanted a brooch. So this week I finished my grapes brooch. It is a bunch of blue and purple grapes surrounded by 3 shiny leaves. It is finished with a brooch pin for easy attaching. The grapes brooch is currently available for purchase via my Etsy shop. It will make a perfect gift for any woman who appreciates unique handmade accessories.

Here are the pictures of the grapes brooch:

Bridal hat with a gorgeous silk rose and a birdcage veil

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.

When I finished assembling this rose I immediately thought of it as a millinery flower. Called Bride it is a gorgeous large silk rose of nearly 70 petals and is indeed meant for weddings.
I had the hat idea in my mind as well, I just needed some time to get hold of all the necessary supplies to start creating. And the supply list is rather extensive: sinamay base, viscose velvet, hat elastic, crin, coque feathers, dupioni leaves, birdcage veil with spots and of course the silk rose.
Here is  the picture of the finished hat:

And to give you an idea of how it looks on a head I acted as a model :-D in these pictures:

The bridal hat is available for purchase at at my store on Etsy

Pastel butterflies for photo shoot

The other day I worked on an order for a little girl. Her mum had ordered a sky-blue butterfly fascinator to match her dress for a photo shoot. And although the little lady is only two and a half one would agree that for photo shoots bold and dramatic accessories are most welcome. So I accepted the order.
It is a universal truth that it takes you much less time per item if you make 2 similar items simultaneously. And I often stick to this truth. So I made 2 butterfly headdresses in pastel colours, sky-blue and soft pink. I used 4 types of silk (satin, dupioni, organsa, pongee), lace, Japanese and Czech seed beads and ostrich feathers. All the fabrics have been painted by hand. I even painted the feathers for the sky-blue butterfly. And I am very much pleased with the result. I think the butterflies have turned out most dainty and delicate ready to decorate any little princess head.
The sky-blue piece is currently on the way to Moscow but the pink one is available for purchase from my Etsy shop

And here are some pictures for you

Lola rose

Britain is suffering of cold and snow. It is like being back to mother Russia in a way. And I have decided that I do NOT like cold and snowy UK, it just does not feel right. Besides, I am worried about my plants, all the little bulbs which are already coming up and the camellia full of buds. One snowdrop which was coming into flower got frozen the other day...

I would like to hope that it is not going to last long but BBC does not give much hope just yet.

Despite the gloominess outside I have a nice new rose blooming inside. In rich orange and red tones is provides a perfect change from the white winter outside. So here is Lola rose

Isn't she just full of sunshine? :-)

A strawberry plant

I know it is still winter and we are actually about to enter a cold spell after all that mild weather of last months but my fabric strawberry plant is ready and growing from a tiny Long Tom terracotta pot. Yes, you have guessed right and I did finish my berry project.
Here how it look

I think it is rather sweet :-)

But I have in mind another idea on how to use it to make it wearable. Or ever 2 ideas. the original one was to make a little brooch/corsage with it which I still might attempt one day. But before that I would like to make a headband decorated with leaves and strawberries. I think it will really look cool. So keep your eyes peeled to this page folks ☺

Fabric strawberries

Textile is a very versatile and pliable material and since there so many different varieties of textile one can say that there's got to be a fabric for any job imaginable. When we make flowers we choose nice lightweight and medium silk fabrics, shiny or matt, sometimes almost transparent depending on the flower we are creating.
But what if we want to make a ... strawberry? What fabric to use to make the work look nice and the process easy and smooth? Probably something relatively thick? Like velvet?
This is what came out of my fabric berry experimenting:

Materials: Japanese velvet, Japanese melton, satin, Japanese lining silk.
P.S. Whatever you see in the picture is a small unfinished interior arrangement. But I think that a little brooch with strawberries would look really cute!
How would you make use of these juicy berries?