Hairpieces galore!

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.

It is very cold in England. Despite the fact that the astronomic spring arrived in Blighty last Wednesday we continue to suffer from strong winds, snow and overnight frosts. People are desperate to see a bit of sunshine and the social media are full of signs of their despair such as this one:

So to cheer us all up we've made a photo shoot starring my friend Katya from Moscow, wearing a number of my floral accessories and cocktail hats.

One of my recent wreaths is this double cherry blossom open wreath which is perfect for a romantic, countryside or beach wedding. As the name suggests it will fit any size as it fastens up with a pure silk ribbon at the back.

 My long time favourite, the black silk and lace butterfly hair fascinator is decorated with beads and ostrich feathers. The  butterfly is finished with a thin headband and available to order in other colours to match your dress. 

Another perfect bridal hair accessory is this delicate fantasy clematis flower set against classic spotted French veiling and embellished with ostrich feathers. For the flower I used pure silk of several kinds, as well as thin floral lace. The clematis veil fascinator is finished with a hair comb.

Now this is an unusual cocktail hat fit for a beautiful equestrienne or a woodland princess. It will look equally charming at a party or an occasion to impress. The rigid base is covered with pure chocolate silk and adorned with a long golden pheasant feather. I used seed beads, bugle beads and faceted glass beads to embroider the base of the feather and add a bit of sparkle to the hat. The piece is finished with hat elastic.

One more veil fascinator for a wedding this time with a large peony. The silk flower is made of silk habotai and silk organza and embellished with freshwater pearls. For the leaves I used floral lace doubled with silk organza. The delicate flower is finished with a comb and French veiling.

And last but not least is this fantasy flower hair fascinator made of black sinamay. I used some peacock feathers to decorate it. To perfectly match your outfit the flower fascinator can be made in an array of other colours. The piece is finished with a hair comb.

I'd like to think you have enjoyed the pictures as we have enjoyed shooting them for you. It would be lovely to hear what you liked most and why. And for now let's hope the spring is just around the corner 

             :-)

My second Wedding Fair, bestsellers and more

You know this feeling: you are waiting for something, the time is dragging on and it seems that it will never happen. But voila, with a blink of an eye the long-awaited event has come and gone! After 2 months of rather intensive preparations yesterday I took part in my second Wedding Fair ever and the first one in the new area. The event was organised by Norfolk Brides (many thanks to Dalia) and was held at the beautiful Drayton Old Lodge wedding and conference centre. As a result of a lot of advertising on social media and in the local press, we had a decent footfall. 

Here is how my stand looked at the Fair:

Despite a very chilly day the morning started very busy and continued up until lunchtime. The second half was slower partially probably due to the local football game. I saw many more genuinely interested brides and their mothers than at my first Fair. The most popular item turned out to be my wedding butterflies as hair clips, brooches and headbands.

The oat pearl headband with a large white rose was second most popular along with veil fascintors and wedding hats.

This unique headband in the roaring 20s style can be purchased from my Etsy shop. I can also make to order similar headbands in silver grey and golden colours.

 Given the number of business cards and leaflets handed out let us hope for a busy forthcoming wedding season. Meanwhile I shall continue working on new wedding designs which I will share with you here :-)

Mother's Day rose brooch

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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 :-)

A pillbox hat with silk roses

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.

It is natural to use my handmade silk flowers to decorate hats and fascinators. That is why I would like to master the art of hat making and from time to time I try and create a hat which I can then embellish with my flowers.
As I am in the process of getting ready for a Wedding Fair with a vintage twist I have decided to make a wedding pillbox hat.

As you can see the hat is made of buckram frame covered with silk dupioni and finished with hat elastic. For decoration I created an English rose with a bud and foliage (several types of silk fabric) as well as goose biot feathers and a couple of diamonds of French veil.

The diameter of the pillbox hat is 15 cm.
The hat is available for purchase from my Etsy shop

I would be pleased to read your comments about the hat and the flowers.

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