I purchase my sola wood flowers from a company called Oh Your Lovely. They have excellent quality of flowers at a reasonable price. They do discounts and sales so always watch out for those. They also have a wide variety of sola flowers to choose from. Stefanie, one of the two founders of Oh Your Lovely, has posted several tutorials both on youtube and facebook different things you can do with sola wood flowers and how-to videos.
Supplies:
- About 15-20 sola wood flowers of different sizes (1inch-3inch) Here are the flowers I used from Oh Your Lovely. Oh Your Lovely also sell some of their flowers on Amazon. Here is a link to an assortment they have. Oh You’re Lovely Cream Sola Wood Assortment – 50 in a Set
- Marigold
- Miss Ivy
- Woodland lily
- Wooden box or rectangular container (mine was 11 x 3.5)
- Hot glue gun and glue Surebonder CL-800F 60-Watt Cordless High Temperature Glue Gun
- Foam that fits inside wooden box (green dry foam works best) I cut my foam down to size. I believe Michaels has the best price for this. https://www.michaels.com/floracraft-7.8in-green-dry-foam-bricks-6ct/10302810.html
- Something to stem your flowers (18-guage wire, bamboo sticks, actual sticks) I suggest spray painting or painting your stems a green color. DECORA 18 Gauge Dark Green Floral Paper Wrapped Wire 16 inch,50/Package
- greenery/filler I wait for Michaels, Hobby Lobby, or Joann Fabrics to have sales on these.
- Moss if desired to cover foam bottom ( I did not use it for this arrangement)
- Acrylic paint of your choice. Here are the two acrylic paint colors I chose. Apple Barrel PROMOABI Matte Finish Acrylic Craft Paint Set Designed for Beginners and Artists, Non-Toxic Formula that works on All Surfaces, Assorted Colors 1, 18 Count
This is the first flower arrangement I have done. I have about 15 sola wood flowers in this arrangement, but this will differ a little depending on each individual arrangement. I started out by placing the undyed flowers in a rough layout out to determine about how many flowers I thought I would need to dye. I under estimated, but that was okay, because I added undyed (raw) woodland lily flowers to fill in the extra spaces. These extra raw woodland lily flowers added a nice touch to my arrangement. Once I got my rough layout and number of flowers to dye, I started to dye the flowers. I would recommend taking a picture of the layout before you move any of the flowers, so you will remember where you wanted each flower to go. For this arrangement I did each type of flower in its own color. You could mix the flower types and color if you wish.
To dye the flowers, I mixed acrylic paint with warm water. The warm water helps mix the acrylic paint better than cold water. I just mix the paint and water till it looks like a good color and consistency. I found a plastic fork is a great tool to mix the acrylic paint and water together. The fork can be used like a whisk to really get a good mix. Being my first attempt at dying the flower I did not add enough paint to my mixture. You really need a lot of paint for this, but you can always add more paint or more water to your solution as needed. If the mixture is to thick, then add more water to your mixture and redipp your flower so it is more consistent in color. If your mixture is to watery and the color does not seem to stick to the flower, then add more acrylic paint and redip the flower. I was not sure if I would need to redip my flowers. I wanted to see how they looked in the morning after they dryed. So, I saved my paint and water mixer by putting a lid on the container, and left my flowers to dry overnight. I place my wet flowers in empty egg cartons to dry. You can also use cookie drying racks you no longer use for cookies or food items. The next morning, they needed more color, so I redipped them in my water and paint mixture, and allowed them to dry for another day. After the second dip they were to my liking. Once they were all dry, I stemmed them all.
To stem a sola flower you just need a stem, which can be an 18-gauge wire, bamboo stick, or something similar. I had extra bamboo reed sticks laying around, so I used those to stem my flowers. Next time I think I would paint my bamboo sticks a green color to look like stems before gluing them to my flowers. In this arrangement I never painted the bamboo sticks and at certain angles you can see the sticks showing through. Lesson learned. To stem a sola wood flower I recommend taking your stem and pressing it into the back of your flower, where the flower is tied together, to create a small hole. Then remove the stem and apply some hot glue to the end of the stem, and insert it back into the hole you just made.
I then cut each stem down to about 3 inches. I read this was about the height most people cut their stems for arrangements too. I then cut some foam down to fit nicely inside my wooden box. I only had some white foam on hand at the time. I did not glue down the foam, but I believe many people like to glue their foam to the box. I chose not to glue mine, because I thought it might be necessary to take out the foam from time to time to get a better angle when placing the flowers and greenery, which I did do. I also did not want it glue the foam to the box in case I decided I did not like the arrangement.
Next, I started to place the stemmed flower in the locations I wanted them to go. After placing about half of my flowers I realized the white foam was very noticeable through the flowers. So, I took out the flowers I had just inserted into the foam and painted the foam green. Since the bottom of the foam was not going to be visible, I did not need to paint this or most of the sides green. Only the top and about a quarter of each side was painted green. Once that was dry started to place my flowers again. When all the flowers were in place, I started filling in some of the gaps with greenery and these blue flower-like fillers I had found on sale awhile back. The greenery was cut down to small pieces to be placed and some required some hot glue to secure into place.
Once the greenery, filler, and flowers were all in a place I liked, I realized I would need a few more flowers since there were more gaps now that the flowers were farther away from the foam. I did not want to have to dye more flowers and then wait for them to dry. So, I decided to add some raw undyed flowers to fill in the gaps. I tested out a few different types and really liked the woodland lily. The natural bark color on these flowers added a lot of contrast and beauty to the arrangement. So, I stemmed a few of the woodland lily flowers and cut the bamboo sticks down to size. Then I carefully added them to the arrangement along with a few more pieces of greenery. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. It took a long time to make, but I was pleased with my first arrangement. I was surprised how many flowers it took to make this piece, but I did not use a lot of greenery. You can use more greenery if you would like, it all depends on the look and style you are going for.
I have heard that adding a glycerin water mixture to your flowers or to the paint when dying the flowers, will make them a lot softer and easier to work with. The glycerin can also be added to a spray bottle with water, and then sprayed onto flowers to soften them after they have been dyed. The glycerin makes the flowers less brittle, which means they can be arranged and messed with easier with less damage or broken petals. This is especially recommended if the arrangement is going to be shipped to someone. So, I just placed an order for this glycerin and when it arrive in a few weeks I will try it out and let you know my opinions. Vegetable Glycerin/Glycerine Quart (32 fl. oz.), Natural Pure USP Food Grade/Cosmetic Grade, For Skin, Hair, Crafts, Soap Base Oil – Kosher, Halal and Pharmaceutical for by Raw Plus Rare
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