Tools and Materials

In this section, you will find out what particular works each nozzle is used for, and what additional tools and materials are needed.

Content:

1. Tools, working nozzles for hot pressing
2. Sponges
3. Additional hand tools
4. Additional materials
5. All range of pre-starched Japanese fabrics

1. Tools

NameApplying
Balls or hemi-sphere from 2mm to 40mm
Radius balls give the petals rounded shape, tool diameter (head forsoldering iron) is selected based on the size of silk flower or petal.
Smooth spoons 5mm, 6mm and 7mm
Used to give the edges of leaves and petals of characteristic shapes.
Grooved spoons 1, 2 and 3 grooves
Grooved spoons unlike smooth spoon makes a 1,2 or 3 grooves that looks very interesting.
Knife
This knife is specially designed to make veins, not for cutting fabrics.

Japan hook

Universal head made of metal with various applications. It is used to make veins in the leaves and petals, curl the ends of rose, chrysanthemum petals.

Four-pointed shaped head “flower”

It is used to make fabric forget-me-nots and five-pointed bases.

Draw plate with input holes 2 and 4mm and output hole 8mm
It is used to make thin tubes of fabric for such flowers as chrysanthemums, fancy flowers.
Ultra-thin spoons smooth and with one groove
A spoon or ultra-thin Japanese knife is especially appreciated by advanced flower artists. Ultra-thin spoon creates more elegant and delicate veins both in the petals and in leaves of a rose, for instance.

2. Sponges

Another very important and necessary part in your flower-making handicraft is sponges. Sponges come in three types: hard, medium-hard or medium and soft. Their application is as follows:

Hard – most commonly used when working with delicate tools such as ultra-thin spoons, knife, working heads of small diameters. Needed for the creation of more relief patterns on the leaves, as well as when working with small flowers, lilies-of-the-valley, bells, etc.

Medium – quite universal sponge, convenient when working with petals and leaves of small and medium size; Soft – used when working with petals of larger size, i.e. where large convex shapes are needed;

Remember! Before working, you need to wrap all sponges with cotton fabric to prevent their damage or burning. Another important point for cotton fabric: it is desirable to wash it before use, since there is a process lubricant on it, which is washed off after a single wash.

3. Additional hand tools

In addition to the soldering iron with temperature control, different nozzles and sponges, you need the following items:
– Cups for dye thinning;
– Palette;
– Pipette for dosing incs and water;
– Brushes of various sizes;
– Scissors (big and small, sharp);
– Wire cutters or pliers;
– Awl;
– Stapler;
– Litter paper (at dyeing);
– Pencil.
– Tweezers for curling ends of petal

4. Additional materials needed for first flower creation

Well, the tools are not enough to make a flower. Fortunately, you can buy fabrics, dyes, stamens, ribbons, wires and adhesives in small quantities now. So, to create your first flower, you need a pattern. It’s easy to print it and cut (download patterns here). You also need the following materials: – Fabrics. Impregnated, prepared for silk floristics, it may be rayon, poplin, organza, satin. These are cheap Japanese fabrics, on which you can practice easily before buying more expensive true pure silks. – Dyes. We recommend powder dyes, which have been specially created for flower making and for nothing more. In total, there are 20 colors, you can try even all of them, but the main ones are green, red and yellow. – Stamens. You can even make them by your hands or just buy a bundle; – Ribbons. Ribbons are silk (usually of Usukinu fiber silk), stretch, self-adhesive and paper. All ribbons are of different colors and shades, but only white silk ones can be dyed; – Wire. None of flower arrangements can be made without papyrus-braided wire. Wire can be of different thickness: from the thickness of a hair – for delicate petals, up to thick one – for solid stems. The wire is needed for bringing the stability and permanent form to the compositions. Papyrus-braided wire can be perfectly dyed and glued; – Glue. Different ways of gluing are used in different workshops: by pistol glues and PVA glues. We recommend Japanese adhesives: thick and thin floristic glue. Thin is used for petals and leaves, thick – for stems, it is also used for the assembly of compositions; We have responded to the wishes of our customers and put on sale the kits for assembling flowers of fabric. I.e. you do not need to buy a large number of fabrics, dyes and other things, spending extra money.

5. Flower making fabrics

Flower making fabrics shall be prepared and starched already. In Japan, they are starched (tanned) with PVC vinyl-acetate emulsion. There are three degrees of tanning: medium, hard and super hard. Hard tanning is used most often. But it does not mean that all kinds of fabrics will be firm to the touch, since fabrics are also different in their density, texture and composition. At the moment, there are about 100 kinds and variations of fabrics for flower making. The description of fabrics: from the most delicate and fine to coarse and dense.

True silk is the quintessence of the art of silk floristics. The most exquisite flowers are made exactly of silk. All the great masters of their craft, who have achieved significant results, try to create their flower arrangements exclusively from silk. Hence the high price per unit of product. Well, high art – high demands. We shall just draw your attention to the fact that many people mistakenly call some kinds of fabric “silk”, which is not the one. There is a huge amount of fiber silk in the market, which is difficult to be distinguished it from the true one. True silk is also impregnated with special compounds and has a certain density. Moreover, there is a numeration of silk. Numeration indicates the density of weave, e.g. Silk Georgette No.6 is much softer than Georgette No.20. The following is a list of all the silks, which are made in Japan for flower making:

  • Pure silk Crepe de Chine
  • Pure silk Georgette
  • Pure silk Habutay
  • Pure silk Organza
  • Pure Silk Satin, Royal Satin, Satin Crepe

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