Denise Brown - Making Paper Flowers

MAKING paper flowers

MAKING paper flowers

create 35 beautiful floral projects using origami, decoupage, paper mch, and quilling

denise brown

This edition published in 2022 by CICO Books an imprint of Ryland Peters & Small 341 E 116th St, New York NY 10029 2021 Jockeys Fields, London WC1R 4BW

First published in 2014 as Paper Flowers

www.rylandpeters.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text Denise Brown 2014

Design and photography CICO Books 2014

The authors moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library.

ISBN: 978 1 80065 113 5

eISBN: 978 1 80065 149 4

Printed in China

Editor: Marie Clayton

Design: Geoff Borin

Illustrations: Qian Wu

Photography: Jo Henderson

Stylist: Nel Haynes

Art director: Sally Powell

Production manager: Gordana Simakovic

Publishing manager: Penny Craig

Publisher: Cindy Richards

CONTENTS

I have wanted to do a book on paper flowers for a long time so was thrilled to work on this one. Despite my love of flowers I am no gardenerI use flowers for inspiration and dont try to replicate them. You wont find correct plant terminology in my projectsI refer to yellow frill or flower base, because I think it makes instructions easier to follow. I love playing with scale and theres lots of scope for artistic license.

The paper is important; it has to have the right sort of bendnot too stiff so it cracks or too weak so it flops. Look for paper with color on both sides, such as double-sided giftwrap or copier paper, which comes in many colors. And catalogs look amazing transformed into flowers. I recycle junk mail for practice pieces, cereal boxes are excellent for templates, and I experiment with paper serviettes, kitchen roll, coffee filter papers, envelopes... Rainbow color tissue paper is one of my favorite mediums, even though it doesnt stretch. Crepe paper comes in various weights and stretchiness and with this you can mold petals, which I paint in watercolor for interesting effects. If you do paint or use chalks then fix the colorbut try a test piece first to make sure the fixative doesnt splatter and ruin your project. Ease crepe a little at a time because once its stretched you can never go back and grain direction is important, so check the grain line on the templates.

My favorite pieces of equipment are a scalpel, metal ruler, cutting mat, and fine nozzle glue dispenser. I dont use specialist equipmentI prefer a rustic, handcrafted lookbut if time is an issue it can be great. I use 20 or 22 gauge wire, which is bendy. With glue, for large areas use spray glue; for hand-size areas try glue stick; for anything smaller, use white glue (PVA). Always allow to dry fully between stages.

I like to make leaves separatelytheres no point in spending time on them only to find they are hidden in your favorite container. If your vase is opaque, fill it with dried riceit holds the blooms firmly, yet you can move them around easily. In general, I try to avoid leaving flowers in direct sunlight.

I hope you enjoy making the flowers in this book and that it will inspire you to come up with your own variations. Use scrap paper to practice first, and dont get frustrated if your first attempts arent perfect you will improve with practice!

These spiral flowers are very easy to make and remind me of ranunculus; try them in different sizes and experiment with your own spiral designs. They look better in solid color paper because you can see the structure more easily, but make sure the paper you choose will bend properly.

Use the templates on to cut out one circle for each flower from white paper. I used both large and small templates for different flowers in my cluster.

Make a pattern by cutting the lines of the spiral once and then go around a second time shaving off a very thin sliver of paper to make the line into a narrow slit. Place the pattern onto the colored paper and draw the spiral onto it through the slit. Cut along the line.

Begin to roll the spiral around the tip of the toothpick, starting with the outer end. The paper is easier to roll if you dampen the tip of the spiral first. Keep the paper as tightly rolled as you can and ease it around the toothpick. If you use paper that has color on only one side, roll so the color is on the insideas the flower opens, you will get much more color.

Plain white paper

Pencil

Scissors

Solid color paper Toothpick

White (PVA) glue

Green wire

Wire cutters

Thick needle or pin

Seed beads