Le Petit Cadeau

February Flower Making Workshop

Thank you, thank you to the fabulous 5 who made up last Saturday's flower making workshop. It was wonderful to meet you (or see you again), and you all made the day quite fun and special.

Here's a peek at the lovliness that was made -

Annette - Being a veteran of two (now three) workshops, Annette was looking to expand her flower making repertoire. Instead of making a rose, she tackled a tiger lily - with stunning results.

She also made a sweet pansy that I somewhat inadequately captured for posterity - it really is more lovely in person. I have a feeling velvet is a little problematic to photograph (at least for me).

DeAnna - Why didn't I think to photograph anything of DeAnna's? I totally spaced taking photos of the wild and wonderful petals she made. She had the goal of making a rose that was completely outrageous and "not real" looking (which is truly harder than it seems). I do believe she would have succeeded with the black petals accented with yellow and white she was working on. Hopefully I can get a photo of the finished product some time in the future.

Lynsey - Subtle airbrush work and hand-painted accents make this rose whimsically dramatic. The blush of pink on the inner petals is such a nice combination with the stronger pink edges and the white and pink outer petals - soft and pretty, yet bold.

Such a super sweet rose bud! Again, with some very nice airbrushing.

Mignon - This rose is unusual in that it looks more real in person than in photos - crazy! Mignon applied soft whispers of yellow on her rose petals and then did some amazing hand-painting on the edges - so subtle and soft and beautiful.

Mignon's second rose demonstrates such versatility and daring. The mixture of fabrics moves this flower into fantasy territory - a very different look and feeling from the first, but every bit as pretty.

Shelly - This rose is so classically feminine and elegant. Shelly started with pink silk and airbrushed a lovely darker pink blush on the inner petals - then she addes some hand-painted accents which added further interest.

And, another velvet flower that my photo failed to really capture. In "real life" it is a dramatic purple and happens to look fantastic paired with Shelly's pretty magenta hair.

Sending out another "Thank You" to all who attended this latest workshop. I always enjoy seeing what beautuful flowers everyone makes.

A Pink Moment

The idea of pink leaves appealed to me, so I dyed some velvet in three shades of pink and pressed out some leaves and tiny flowers. Not a ton this time, as I'm not sure how long the fascination with pink leaves will last.

The hot pink leaves are a bit of a novelty. I may end up liking them, but I may have a "What was I thinking!?!" moment. The jury is still out...

Luckily my leaf and flower cutting obsession is waning a bit, and I'm eager to move on to other things.

Spring-y Type Leaves

The urge to make leaves didn't leave, so I decided to experiment further with dyeing. I wanted some Spring leaves with lots of variation, so I mixed up little amounts of strong dye and painted it onto the velvet. It looked like this -

I let it sit for a bit - rinsed it - then tossed it in a yellow dye bath - the whole time anticipating a piece of velvet that would yield fresh and dramatic looking leaves. Alas, it was not to be - not this time, anyway. When I removed the velvet from the yellow dye bath, all the lovely variation had pretty much blended together and the end effect proved to be anything but dramatic. Below are some of the leaves -

On the up side, they are Spring-y looking - a sort of fresh bright limey sort of green - and I had a great time pressing them and cutting them out. I could cut and cut and cut for hours and be happy as a clam.

I also made a pile of tiny velvet flowers. I'm thinking they might work well as accents to larger flowers on some sort of headpiece.

I'm totally loving the nifty carrier in which all these leaves and flowers are piled. A couple of weeks ago a neighbor put out a couple of round wooden cheese boxes  - free to any passer-by - and I totally scored. They're nice and big and are such a great way to keep things relatively organized and easy to transport (one even has a lid). Very handy for me, as I tend to work in multiple rooms of the house. My "studio" is literally the size of a large closet, and rather than be super organized and neat as a pin, I choose to move around...

2012 Workshops

I'm excited to announce next year's workshops - one of which is actually scheduled! For the full low-down, please visit my Workshops page. Also, new for this year is a move into the current century registration-wise. No more checks in the mail, just click a button and register online - super easy and secure.

The fun begins January 14, 2012 with Millinery Flower Workshop - English Garden. All skill levels are welcome, and it features techniques that you can employ to add an extra touch of "life" to your flowers.

Several people in my last workshop suggested a "studio day" - a time for in-depth Q&A's, tool demo's, hands-on practice, etc. It sounded like a great idea to me, so it is part of the 2012 schedule. I have to say I'm pretty psyched about it. I really like going into detail (geeking out) ;-) about different techniques, etc.

With the exception of Studio Day, I've tried to come up with workshops that would be interesting and informative for both beginners and more experienced flower makers. I'll definitely be posting more once DeAnna and I have the 2012  schedule finalized.

October Flower Workshop

A giant "Thank You!" to everyone who attended Saturday's workshop. It was really great to meet you - or see you again. The flowers that emerged were/are spectacular.

In alphabetical order -

First up, Annette -

Inspired by a peony, Annette took her flower into true fantasy territory by mixing fabrics and choosing an unconventional color palette. Very lush, very lovely.

DeAnna -

UGH! I didn't get any photos of the flowers D made. My camera died before the end of the day. Sooo unfortunate because DeAnna whipped up some fantastical green and black roses.

Julia -

This rose is so delicate and exquisite. Julia did a great job with the airbrush to create subtle gradations in color. I love the feminity of this flower. She also created a very sweet bud to go with her rose. Unfortunately, my camera chose to die the very moment I was photographing it.

Kirsten -

Kirsten dove right in and made this lovely rose in record time. Unbelievable. She's fearless with her color and with her fabric choices - as you can see in her second rose pictured below. I love the spirit of experimentation that both of these roses exhibit.

Monique -

Monique chose to go with a pale vintage look for this peony. Delicate subtle airbrush work really adds to the overall lovliness of this flower.

I love that this flower is sooo different than the peony. For the rose pictured above, Monique decided to go in a darker more experimental direction - with great results. She created a flower that is both dramatic and charming.

Tricia -

This certainly has a "wow factor" - bold and dynamic. I adore the over-the-top fantasy quality of this flower - and how far Tricia pushed the stylization of the petals. I'm always in awe of her creations.

Again, thank you all who attended the workshop. I hope you are as inspired as I am now to make more flowers!

October Fantasy Flower Workshop

A spot has opened up in the Fantasy Flower Workshop that I am teaching in October.

If you are interested - hurry, hurry and send me an email so that we can make the proper arrangements to secure the last place for you. As always, the workshop will be taught at DeAnna's millinery studio in San Francisco. More details are available on my "Workshops" page - and, of course, if you email me, I can answer any further questions you may have.

Fall Leaves

I may be jumping the gun a tad, but I'm beginning to sense Fall approaching - which sent me off in a different direction color wise. I'm not naturally drawn to fall colors, but for whatever reason, I decided to experiment a little with them. I've noticed when making leaves, a bit of color variation goes a long way in terms visual interest, so I randomly applied color to some velvet - and then got down to making some leaves...

Stacks of them.

Again, I find mindless repetitive work deeply comforting. I know it drives some people crazy, but I seem to take to it like a fish to water. This skill high tolerance for repetitive tasks served me very well when I made plants for museum dioramas. I have cut leaves for days, have painted veins on leaves for days, etc. and somehow I came out on the other end relatively sane.

Anyway, as far as the dye experiment went, I'm pretty satisfied. I ended up getting some good color variation. I think the next time I dye randomly, I'll try applying colors in smaller patches so that there will be even more of a range on each leaf.

Rose Tutorial

Since I have been posting pictures of flowers I have made, I have gotten quite a few inquiries about the availability/existence of some sort of tutorial. Now I can say, "Yes, there is a tutorial available. You can go to my "Silk Rose Tutorial" page and purchase your very own downloadable copy."

 

I have to say, I have a new found respect for people who put together tutorials on a regular basis. I didn't quite realize what a big job it was until I started work on this one - especially the computer/tech part of it. Whoo boy, did I fight some battles. I almost gave up, but somehow managed to finish. What a sense of relief. Yay! Nineteen pages of flower making fun are now available!

Now that the tutorial is finished I can get back to making flowers - and other things. So many ideas brewing...

Gardenias

Don't know why exactly, but I got the urge to make a small army of gardenias.

I have a vague impressionistic vision of a floating gardenia head piece - don't have a clear idea of how to pull it off. I suspect the finished product will morph into something quite different from my initial idea.

I had a great time making these little guys. I have a high tolerance for mindless-repetitive-assembly-line type work. There is something very satisfying about plugging into music or an audio book and just cranking out multiples of whatever it is that needs to be made... Plus, I enjoy the visual impact of a whole group of same-ness.

Floral Fascinator

Last month I took DeAnna's Millinery Bouquet Workshop, and this is what I made -

For the workshop we had to bring flowers that we had made, and then we learned how to assemble them into a fascinator, headband, or other headpiece. It was tons of fun - I learned a lot, got inspired, and it was great to see several familiar faces and meet a new one. Absolutely love taking classes...

Katie (who has taken two of my flower making workshops) brought in some California poppies that she made at home. They were sooo lovely - she absolutely nailed the color. (Wish I had gotten a picture, but I was in student mode and didn't think to bring my camera.) It got me to thinking about how much I'd like to make poppies - and about how fabulous a wild flower headpiece would be.

Some more pics of le petit chapeau avec la grande fleur -

The tiny hat part is made of straw on which I attached a large silk flower, a small velvet flower, and some (horse hair?) trim. DeAnna provided all the materials except for the flowers. We got to choose from an abundant and well curated selection of trims, different materials to make the hat bases, findings, etc. It was such a treat to "shop" in her studio.

Here's a detail shot of the velvet flower. I have found black flowers to be stubbornly unphotogenic, but really pretty fabulous in person.

One of these days, I may splash out for a proper model. Until then, the foam skull will have to do...