Handmade silk leaves for restoration work I am sorry I have not posted in weeks. This is all due to a large order of silk leaves. Intrigued? Read on I have been very busy working away on a pretty big, I would even say a wholesale order: I have been making 300 acer leaves for an unusual customer. The customer, one of London’s antique dealers, will be using my leaves to restore a spectacular French timepiece featuring moving and … Read More
Undoubtedly fabric poppies have always been popular. Especially fire engine red ones, which resemble the simple wild poppies grown without any cultivation in a natural setting. As we all know the red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem “In Flanders Fields”. To cater for all tastes I have several Remembrance poppies in my portfolio ranging from satin to velvet ones, with and without foliage, with just 4 petals or a fuller … Read More
It is official, autumn is here. And although the days are still rather warm and even sunny the mornings are chilly and filled with dewy cobwebs. In colder months I find that silks and other delicate fabrics tend to lose their appeal and give way to more seasonally appropriate fellow material, leather. Lately, I have been working on my new line which I dubbed Indian Summer. Those of you who live in the Southern Hemisphere may not have experienced this … Read More
Stiffening leather tutorial Those of you who have tried working with genuine leather know how temperamental it can be. Leather is a natural product and as a result may have imperfections such as holes or scars, the thickness and stretch can vary too. And it is completely unpredictable when it comes to shaping it with hot flower iron. For my floral pieces I stiffen leather is several ways. Today I am going to share one of this ways with you. The … Read More
Click here to get to my shop My dear fans and friends!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I did not think that I would be ever writing this but here I am offering you to buy some of my flowers so that I could help refugee Ukrainian children with school uniform and stationary. I understand that I can not do much but in this situation everything matters and every little helps. I am sure you will agree with that.Refugee children have no clothing or basic school … Read More
Last week we went to a wedding, my husband’s niece was getting married.To prove the well-known proverb “The shoemaker’s son always goes barefoot” wrong, I decided to create a cocktail hat for myself (for once! :-D) to wear at the wedding. It gave me a chance to try my new hat block, a mini beret. I covered the base with a beautiful quilted dupioni silk and decorated with a spray of rumbling roses in purple. Floral cocktail hat The flowers … Read More
Often I am asked what sort of dyes I use to colour fabrics for my pieces. And it is a very relevant question as not any fabric dyes could be used for our purposes. To start with I can say that acrylic fabric dyes are not suitable for a number of reasons. First, they are quite thick, they coat the fabric rather than penetrate it thus changing the texture of it and they also stick to the millinery tools when … Read More
Recently I accepted a custom order for a set of 5 silk butterflies to decorate a bridal hairdo. The bride-to-be has taken her inspiration from this Pinterest photo and wanted a similar hair style. . As her dress is black she opted for bright white butterflies with pearl bodies and no antennae. I must admit these were the first butterflies I have ever created without the antennae, but I can understand why: 5 butterflies will need a lot of space … Read More
I have finally finished this custom oversized rose headdress. This was an experimental piece, the one your customers inspire you to dare and do it by ordering something quirky. You try your best and come up with … well, a masterpiece! Oversized rose headdress Created employing Japanese flower making techniques the piece has proven to be time consuming but the result is impressive. Not only does this rose look natural it is also very durable as each and every petal and … Read More
I wonder if there is ever going to be a moment when I say to myself: I have tried and made all the flowers imaginable. For some reason I do not think this is going to happen and you know very well why: there are sooooooooo many flowers out there that it is virtually impossible to make them all. Every time I come across a flower picture in a book or online or I see a plant in somebody’s … Read More