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?

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.

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And a Happy New Year to you! :-)

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

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 )))

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?

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?