Artificial flowers

Artificial flowers have been made out of just about every medium known to humankind. They have been beaded, crocheted, blown in glass, squirted out in icing, shaved out of wood, made out of pinecones cut across, made out of feathers, clay, fabric, hair, plastic, wire, anything that came to hand. But the artificial flowers that just holler ‘party’! are twisted and twirled out of paper. Plain old tissue paper or crepe paper. They can be any color, any size, any type of flower. A little string, a little wire, a lot of paper flowers and you’ve got yourself ambiance galore!

The most marvelous shop window I ever saw was extremely simple—just the clothes on headless forms—and a paper rose about eight feet high. Wow. It was made out of stiffish paper to hold itself up, but the effect was stunning. And what did it cost? Only materials and a little know-how. In principal it was no different from making a life-sized crepe paper rose, not much different from the ones you probably made in the first grade for Mothers’ Day.

Paper flower-making is a craft that has no borders. From Mexico to India and all points in between, people make flowers out of the modest every-day materials simply because flowers are beautiful, but expensive and perishable. Paper flowers are cheap (if you make them yourself), accessible, and fun to make. And they’ll last long after the party is over.

A big package of white tissue paper is very useful to have on hand. You can use it to package gifts, to pack for traveling, and to practice making paper flowers. It can also be carefully tinted with powdered eye-makeup and blush. Bet you never thought of that! Use a cotton swab or ball to softly tint the finished flower. Once you get really good at making the flowers, buy colored tissue papers and really get creative. Use more than one shade of each color just to make your flowers more interesting. Crepe paper makes good foliage and stems.

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