Artificial Fllowers - article about Artificial Fllowers

Artificial Flowers

There is nothing to beat a vase of freshly cut flowers but an alternative is sometimes needed. Artificial flowers have greatly improved in quality since their inception. They brighten up restaurants and hotel lobbies and bring a splash of color to our homes during the bleak, winter season. It is a very old tradition in some cultures and arranging sprays was revered as a skilled craft. Materials used in the past would be beyond affordability today. The Romans used gold and silver, the Italians used silkworm cocoons and bird feathers were used in South America.

The modern industry began in Italy but the French made it popular in the 18th century and it gained favor across the rest of Europe and America. Today, it is big business and most artificial flowers are the result of mass production manufacturing methods. There are still some producers however, who follow traditional, hand made processes.

The plastic varieties that we are all familiar with are made by injection moulding. This produces mass quantities and is the only method that results in identical flowers. The plastic material used to look shoddy and cheap but even this material has been improved in most cases. There are some plastic flowers that are difficult to tell apart from the real thing by sight alone.

Other more individually skilled processes include clay flowers. This method uses a paste of powdered clay and water, which the modeler uses to shape the flowers. There are also soap flowers. Colored soap is put through a lathe and shaped with a chisel. The end product is very precise. Another soap method uses soap without oil, which is ground into a paste. This is shaped and then embossed into the required designs by hand. It's a very time consuming and expensive way of processing artificial flowers.

Arrangements made from cloth or paper are very popular. These artificial flowers have a soft texture and subtle colors. This is a largely hand made process, starting with cutting the material into shape. The petals and leaves are perfected, dyed, assembled and then mounted on wire.

Whichever method is used, there will always be a place for artificial flowers and there is less snobbery around the subject. The industry would progress further no doubt, if someone could invent an artificial spray that carried the actual scent of a garden flower. This would probably be very popular, without the need for watering or getting rid of bugs!

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