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Silk Flower designs.
Order now for your wedding, anniversary or special event.
+ Fact and History of silk flowers +
Silk and other artificial flowers manufactured today are breathtakingly real and must be touched if they are to be distinguished from nature's own. Silk trees bring the outdoors into sterile offices, and flower arrangements change the colour and feel of a room for a relatively small investment. Florists and hobbyists alike find them a joy to work with and take pleasure in completing arrangements that make beautiful, lasting gifts.
The vast improvements in the quality of artificial flowers as well as lifestyles that demand carefree home decorating accessories have caused a bloom in the artificial flower industry, turning it into a multi-billion-pound business. Many of the individual flowers, stems, and foliage are now imported from Thailand, China, and Honduras where the intensive hand labour can be acquired easily.
Faux flowers allow home decorators to defy the seasons, not only by having summer blooms in the mist of winter but by mixing flowers from several seasons in a single display. Some manufacturers use real materials to enhance silk flowers, such as artificial branches or real tree trunks. Real touches are also added to the false flora; leaves may have holes that look like insect damage, silk roses are complete to the thorns, and some are now even scented. Their ultimate attraction may be their least natural aspects; these plants don't need water, fertilizer, sunlight, or tender care.
History
Florists call silk and other artificial flowers "permanent botanicals," and for many years, they looked down on both dried flowers and artificial flowers as inferior. Today, silk flowers are prized for their versatility and are used by florists to enhance live plants and mingle with cut blossoms. This tradition is hundreds of years old and is believed to have been started by the Chinese who mastered the skills of working with silk as well as creating elaborate floral replicas. The Chinese used artificial flowers for artistic expression.
As early as the twelfth century, the Italians began making artificial flowers from the cocoons of silkworms, assembling the dyed, velvety blooms, and selling them. The French began to rival their European neighbours, and, by the fourteenth century, French had become the best in the craft. The French continued to improve both the fabrics and the quality of flowers. In 1775, Marie Antoinette was presented with a silk rosebud, and it was said to be so perfect that it caused her to faint. The Revolution that ended Marie Antoinette's reign also dispatched many French flower artisans to England, and, by the early 1800s, English settlers had taken the craft with them to America.
The Victorian Age was the setting for a true explosion in floral arts, including both living and artificial varieties. The Victorians favoured an overdone style of decor in which every table and mantelpiece bore flowers or other ornaments. Flowers were so adored that "the language of flowers" grew to cult status in which floral bouquets carried messages and meanings. During the mid- to late-1800s, artificial flowers were made of a wider variety of materials than any time before
The manufacture of high-quality artificial flowers made of silk, rayon, or cotton involves die-cutting each petal size from the chosen fabric, hand dyeing the petals, and then moulding the petals to create a life-like effect. Wires are inserted by hand after the petals are pressed. Each flower is assembled individually, and once complete, the flowers are wrapped in florist's paper, and the stems are placed in boxes as if they are to be delivered like a bouquet of real flowers.
Fabrics included satin, velvet, calico, muslin, cambric, crepe, and gauze. Other materials included wood, porcelain, palm leaves, and metal. Wax flowers were popular and became their own art form, and flowers were even made of human hair especially to commemorate deceased loved ones. . By 1920, florists began to add them to their products and services to cover those times when cut blossoms were in short supply.
Celluloid became a popular material for flowers in the 1940s, but the highly flammable flowers were banned from importation from Japan after several disastrous fires. Plastic soon overwhelmed the industry, however, and is still responsible for its versatility in the 1990s. Inexpensive plastics to realistic silk blossoms offer something for everyone.
Raw Materials
Artificial flowers are made in a wide variety of materials depending on the market the manufacturer is reaching. In quantity, polyester has become the fabric of choice by flower makers and purchasers because of lower cost, ability of the fabric to accept dyes and glues, and durability. Plastic is also the material used most often for the stems, berries, and other parts of flowers for the market that includes picks—small clusters of artificial flowers on short plastic and wire stems that can be inserted into forms to make quick, inexpensive floral decorations—and bulk sales of longer stems of flowers that are also less expensive. Artificial flowers are made of paper, cotton, parchment, latex, rubber, sateen (for large, bold-coloured flowers and arrangements), and dried materials, including flowers and plant parts, berries, feathers and fruits.
For more upscale silk flowers, silk, rayon, and cotton are the fibres of choice. Wire in a wide range of gauges or diameters is used for firmness in creating the stems (and in stiffening some flower petals and parts), but the wire is wrapped with specially dyed, tear-resistant, durable paper. No plastic is used. Other natural materials such as dried flowers, feathers, and berries are also significant in the upper end market. To make fruit and some berries, specialty suppliers manufacture forms that are precisely sized and shaped to look like the real fruit from mixtures of tapioca or flour base. The forms are sold to the flower manufacturer who dyes them and mounts them on paper-wrapped stems or stalks. All dyes and glues are also derived from natural materials.
The Manufacturing
Process
The manufacturing process described below features high-quality silk flowers that are sold by the stem and are made for custom decorating, millinery, other fashion accessories, displays, package ornamentation, candy companies, and floristry.
White silk, rayon, or cotton fabric is used for all petals, regardless of their finished colour. The fabric is die-cut using the tools described above into the many petal sizes and shapes that go into a single type of flower. The petals are dyed in the first step of a detailed hand assembly process. The dyer uses cotton balls and paintbrushes to touch colour onto the petals beginning with the edges of the petal and working in toward the centre. Dyeing a single petal can take an hour of concentrated work.
To give them their distinctive curves, wrinkles, and other shapes, the petals are inserted in moulds to which heat is applied to press the petals into individual shapes. After they are pressed, some petals and leaves are stiffened with thin wires. The wires are inserted by hand, and glue is touched on to fix the wire in place.
The separate flowers and sprays of leaves are assembled individually, but several of each may be used to construct a single stem. Another skilled worker has taken wire pre-cut to specified lengths and covered it with floral paper or tape that has a waxy coating to make it self-sticking. Finally, assemblers add the individual flowers and sprays of leaves to the stem.
The finished stems are taken to the packing department. Each stem is wrapped in florist's paper, and the stems are placed in boxes as if they are to be delivered like a bouquet of real flowers. The boxes are sealed and stored for shipment.
The Future
New technologies like the permastem or permasilk processes that fuse flowers to their stems and make them more durable continue to improve the functionality and beauty of faux flowers. Technology is also used to produce dried-look and soft-touch (velvet touch) plants; foliage especially has benefited from soft-touch processing that varies the sizes of leaves on a single branch and gives them a warm, gentle feel.
The future of artificial flowers is likely to imitate its long past. People like to be surrounded by beautiful representations from nature, but they also want the convenience of low-maintenance, everlasting flowers. Our homes and fashions benefit from the addition of artificial flowers, and many other businesses from millinery to confectionery rely on silk flowers to add the finishing touch to their products.
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Meaning of flower colours
Each flower has its own natural beauty and colour, each by its own nature has a meaning and purpose for that colour.
“Each flower is a soul opening out to nature” a quote by Gerald De Nerval
Flowers are a beautiful gift given to the human race by Mother Nature. Since time began flowers have been adorning our world, surrounding us with there wonder and colours and adding a touch of elegance to our existence.
Like so many other things in our world man has given meanings to these flower colours. Understanding these meanings is a way we can convey how we feel about each other in any given moment in time without even saying a word. The age old quotation “says it with flowers”.
To lend a guiding hand in your guest to say the right thing here are some examples of the beauty of colour to express your true feelings…
Yellow - Happiness, friendship, enthusiasm, jealousy, Treachery, pride, success and luxury.
Orange - Satisfaction of attaining success and strengthened love.
Violet - Hope, Generosity, Faithfulness, Modesty, Passion and Humility.
Red - Passion, Love, Admiration, Courage, Desirer, Constancy, Youth and Respect.
Green - Feeling of joy and optimism.
White - Pious, Purity, Heavenly, Sincere feeling, innocence and silence.
Lavender - Feminism, grace and elegance.
Pink - Delicate, Grace, Gentle, Confidence and Admiration
The Rose
As Roses are so often given as flowers of affection from one lover to another I thought I might include the meanings of some of the roses as they come in all the colours of the rainbow and are one of mother natures truly beautiful creations.
White Rose – Innocents and loyalty
Yellow Rose – Friendship and new beginnings
Pink Rose – Young love and Sweetness
Red and White Roses – unity
Blue Rose – Mysterious
Orange Rose – Enthusiasm
Peach Rose – Success
Purple Rose – Faithfulness and Grace
Lavender Rose – love at first sight
Red and Yellow Rose – Congratulations
Red Rose – Everlasting love and romance
There is a flower colour for every occasion, for every word that needs to be spoken. I hope I have helped in your quest to say the right thing. And of course the flowers them selves all have a meaning and I will indeed tell you all about them to, giving you the chance to give the right flower of the right colour to the one you wish to say it all to without ever having to utter a word. |
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