Flower Making Workshops for MAY and JUNE 2017

One wedding, three creations

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

Last week we went to a wedding, my husband's niece was getting married.
To prove the well-known proverb "The shoemaker's son always goes barefoot" wrong, I decided to create a cocktail hat for myself (for once! :-D) to wear at the wedding. It gave me a chance to try my new hat block, a mini beret. I covered the base with a beautiful quilted dupioni silk and decorated with a spray of rumbling roses in purple. 

Floral cocktail hat

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Oversized rose headdress

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

I have finally finished this custom oversized rose headdress. This was an experimental piece, the one your customers inspire you to dare and do it by ordering something quirky. You try your best and come up with ... well, a masterpiece!

Oversized rose headdress

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Accentuate your bridal sash with a silk rose

Lilac rose brooch

I must admit I like the idea of a beautiful silk flower accentuating a wedding dress sash. Painted by hand to match a wedding colour scheme it stands out against the white or cream froth of a bridal gown and yet complements the theme.

Hand made using a specialist technique the rose brooch is more durable than you might think yet delicate and beautiful, which makes it a great accessory even after your W-day. Wear it with a romantic outfit and it will always remind you of one really special day in your life.

Silk rose corsage for a bridal sash

The rose measures about 10 cm in diameter without foliage. The size of the brooch as well the the colour can be customised according to your preferences. To purchase the designer silk rose corsage before someone else snaps this desirable piece of wearable art please head to my Etsy store. There you can also place your custom order.

Promotion on brooches and corsages

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

Continuing with my May promotion I am offering a 10% discount on brooches and corsages till 16 May. 

The brooches and corsages can be made of silk or other fabric as well as real leather. Gone are the days when we used brooches to decorate a jacket lapel or a dress. Now they are embellishing belts, handbags, clutches, hats and all sorts.

Leather and suede brooches do work really well with leather handbags and belts, like these fantasy camellias:

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Mother's Day rose brooch

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.

As we all know 2 days ago the country celebrated Mothering Sunday. And we were pleased to have my mother-in-law visiting us  for the weekend. Traveling to us by train meant that giving fresh flowers was not an option. That is why I decided to give her a ... silk flower of course :-)

This is one of my latest roses and it is particularly good for using in accessories thanks to its shape, double middle and large petals which make it very durable. 

 I chose the rich colours which I thought would match my mother-in-law's style. And I was not wrong! She found the silk rose brooch very nice and most suitable for her wardrobe.

Hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day too :-)

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.

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?