glue for making flowers

Choosing the right glue for making flowers

To glue or not to glue? Let’s talk about choosing the right glue for making flowers

glue for making flowers

 

You can now buy the glue that has been specifically developed for making flowers. To find out more about this glue click here 

 

I receive a lot of emails with questions on different aspects of flower making. One of such burning questions is about choosing the right glue for making flowers with either fabric or leather.
I am not sure if I have mentioned this, but Japan is the country where the craft of making artificial flowers has truly blossomed into a real art. Therefore, there are all sorts of supplies available to those who decide to take it up ranging from various industrially prestiffened fabrics to special dyes and brushes, wires, stamens etc. etc. not to mention the oh-so-important glue.

choosing the right glue for making flowers Whilst it is easy and enjoyable to work with authentic materials, it is not always achievable. None of us live in Japan so we must find a replacement that we could purchase in our own country if we want to make good quality fabric flowers.
I live and work in Britain but I will try to offer alternatives that are going to be widely available (hopefully) as well as explain to you what you should look for.
In case if you were wondering I only work with PVA white glue. I never use any superglue or a hot glue gun in my works, although I know that other artists do use them. For the flowers made using the principles of the Japanese school 2 types of PVA glue are recommended. They are called soft and hard.
Soft glue is slightly less thick and takes longer to dry. It is used for gluing parts onto the backing allowing us enough tine to do that.
Hard glue is used for assembling jobs. You will particularly appreciate it when assembling large multipetal roses. Although very tacky and quick drying it still gives us time to reposition petals if we are not entirely satisfied with the way they have been assembled.

choosing the right glue for making flowers

 

 

Otherwise, you can get this best replacement for the Japanese hard glue that I have found, SOBO glue available on Amazon.
It is really thick and can is ideal for assembling flowers. It dries quickly and becomes clear once dry.

 

 

choosing the right glue for making flowers

As for the soft PVA glue there are several options available. For those of you who are in the UK, I would recommend to check out the tacky PVA glue from Hobbycraft (click here to go to their website)
Another option is PVA based fabric or wood glues which can also be used in flower making.
Also, have a look at this trial pack of tacky fabric glues by Aleene’s which look very promising.

By all means remember that both soft and hard glues are very thick and steer clear from stationary PVA glue that is meant to glue paper and card. Those are usually too runny for the job we do and can be very messy to work with.
I hope you have found this article useful and it will help you choose the right glue to work with.

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Leather and suede flowers

As I have mentioned before the techniques similar to the ones I use for silk flowers can be used for genuine leather and suede in order to make floral accessories. Although there are some specifics when working with leather I use the same set of tools to shape leather petals and leaves. 
I must say that leather being such a rich and luxurious material requires less work done to it to make an accessory when compared to using silk. In my experiments I have tried both leather and suede and as any natural material they proved to be great to work with.
I would like to share several of my latest leather accessories with you.
This fantasy cornflower brooch is made of intense blue leather and decorated with faceted glass beads.

The fantasy camellia in rich berry colour is made of both suede (the petals) and leather (the leaves). It is finished with a brooch base. The corsage is available from my Etsy shop. Not only great for a jacket or coat lapel this handmade fantasy camellia brooch is perfect to decorate your belt, handbag or hat. It makes a great gift too, especially for the forthcoming Mother’s Day.
The aster brooch is similarly created with genuine suede for the petals and leather for the leaves. This corsage in grey blue colour with navy blue leather leaves is a perfect accessory to go with denim clothes this coming spring/summer season. I can also see it complementing floaty cotton dresses 😉

Alternatively it can decorate your jacket, belt or a handbag. And again you can consider it a nice gift to your Mum or a friend. This fantasy aster brooch is available here.

I would be pleased to hear your comments on these leather accessories or ideas of how to incorporate them into our outfits this coming season.

Thanks for your time!

P.S. In this post here I am sharing some tips on stiffening leather for making leather flowers. Hopefully you will find it useful