Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Handmade Clay Roses and Cherry Blossoms

I have made clay flowers and gifted them to many of my friends but somehow never made one for my parents. They are visiting soon and I thought to make a flower arrangement for them. This flower arrangement has roses and cherry blossoms. Following are the supplies required for this project :

- Air dry clay
- Floral Wire and Wire cutter
- Pollens
- Floral tape
- Pointed clay tool or a bamboo skewer or a toothpick (for cherry blossom)
- Acrylic or any water based paint (to color the clay)
- Scissors
- Flower vase
- Ribbons ( I used them to decorate my vase)

You can refer to my previous post on clay roses to get the details on how to make roses. Here are the step by step instructions to make cherry blossoms. The supplies needed for cherry blossoms are shown in the picture.


Take a ball of clay and add a tiny drop of pink color in the ball. Mix it thoroughly till the entire ball gets a uniform color. Now make a small ball of 3/4th inch in diameter and taper it at one end to get a tear drop shape. Using pointed scissors make a cut slightly away from the enter of the tear drop. Now slit the smaller section into two and the bigger one into three.


Now using the pointed clay tool / bamboo skewer spread out each petal as shown in the picture. Support the petal with your finger while spreading it out. It may take you multiple tries to get a neat petal but once you get the knack of it you will be surprised how easy it is.

Take a bunch of pollens and twist wire around them as shown is the picture. You may prepare multiple sets of pollens before hand so that when you are making flowers you save time and hence prevent clay from drying. If the clay still gets dry, you can add a drop of water it to prevent cracks.

Insert the wire with pollens at the center of the flower and pull it down. Make tiny notches at the tip of the petals ( you may skip this step) to finish of the flower.
Leave it to dry. Before adding them to the flower arrangement wrap floral tape around the flower stem. These flowers look very pretty and can be used standalone or in an arrangement with other flowers.


For the vase I used a small wicker basket and decorated with ribbon and pearl. I preferred the wicker basket as it would not break during travel when my parents take it back to India.I loved the final flower arrangement especially the cool spring like colors.

Hopefully you enjoyed this tutorial and will get inspired to make these flowers. Here is another picture of the finished arrangement.

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