colouring stamens for flowers

Colouring stamens for flowers

colouring stamensColouring stamens for flowers made easy!

Although ready made stamens come in a variety of colours and sizes is is often difficult to find ones in suitable colour for a project in question. That’s why I find it easier to colour white stamens myself. This way I make sure that the stamens match my flower in colour and size.

For dyeing stamens we’ll need:
– non porous surface (plastic or glass)
– some vodka (or even better spirit)
– Procion (acid) dyes in chosen colours
– a receptacle (a porcelain dish)
– a pair of tweezers
– a bunch of stamens

Vodka evaporates quicker than water which means the dye will dry before the stamen heads dissolve in the licolouring stamensquid. Water is not as good for this task and even with vodka one should act really quickly.

 

Pour a small quantity of vodka (10-15 ml) into the dish and dissolve some powder dye in it. I find intense colours work better, that’s why I put a generous amount of powder dye into the dish. colouring stamens
Using a brush dissolve the dye well in vodka. It will take a bit longer than dissolving the dye in water, so make sure all the dye grains are dissolved.

 

Now using a pair of tweezers ( and possibly disposable gloves) dip several stamens at a time into the prepared dye and dye them evenly. Do not try to put all of the stamens at once. This will only dissolve all the stamen heads and ruin the stamens.

 

colouring stamensHaving dyed a small bunch of stamens put them onto a prepared non porous surface like glass or plastic and leave to dry. It is important that the stamens are separated (see the photo). Otherwise they will stick together as they are drying.
In this way, portion by porting a small bunch at a time dye all the stamens and lay them out tocolouring stamens dry on the non porous surface. Please do not use paper as the wet stamens stick to it.

 

I hope this information on colouring stamens for flowers is useful for you and you’ll be confident to dye white stamens for your project now.

 

 

 

 

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how to dye silk flowers

How to dye silk flowers: white flowers

dyes 2The 2015 Wedding Season is in full swing. I would not be far off if I suggest that some of you are currently making lots of white flowers. So I thought I would share some tips on how to dye (or not to dye?) the fabric for making white silk flowers.

 

Your actions will depend on the task in hand. Certainly there are situations when we need to create a white orchid hearbandpure white flower, in  warm white or even in cold bluish white. In this case you just need to choose your fabric right, because different fabrics, although all white can vary in shades. Bleached silks are usually cold white, whilst unbleached tend to be of warm, ivory shades. Simply choose the best suitable fabric for the job and skip the dyeing stage altogether.

 

white petalsOn the other hand, if you would like to create a more realistic white flower, you will need to use some dyes. Why? Because if you look at the living flowers either in the pictures or fresh in your garden or vase, they are never just white.
Very often the petals are tinted at the base with a choice of colours ranging from light green to yellow to pink etc.

So, to give some depth and dimension to your fabric flower creation I would recommend to dye the petals in their lower part using pale green or yellow-green for a neutral look. I used exactly this principle in my video tutorial when making Camellia japonica corsage. You can also choose other colours like pale pink or soft peach for a more dramatic effect.

 

Another thing to consider is either colour the rest of the petal with a very diluted green white bride roseyellow to create more of an ivory look of the flower or add some strokes of this colour here and there on the petals using a wide brush. The strokes of dye will not be seen as such but when assembled will let the petals look more realistic than just white pieces of fabric put together. The flower will have a depth to it. This technique works very well with such multipetal flowers like roses, peonies, fantasy poppies etc. So next time you are making a white flower try to add a little bit of colour to it and see the flower coming to life in your hands.

If you happen to own any Japanese flower making books go through them as they often show the process of dyeing in quite a detail. If not we sometimes have an opportunity to offer a limited number of these books on our website. To see what is available at the moment please click here.

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