Artificial flowers can be made of materials like fabric, paper, clay, and even soap. The common fabrics used for this purpose include silk, rayon, cotton, muslin, and crepe.



The point to be kept in mind while making flowers from paper is that paper is not exactly the most durable substance. Hence, there needs to be a way to strengthen it. Sometimes it is treated to any sort of glue. Simply by applying a coat of it stiffens the paper up. One thing to make sure of while doing this is to not overdo the glue content. Otherwise the crispness will give way to brittleness instead! Another option would be to use hard paper. The petals and leaves need to be cut into the required shapes and sizes. Motifs for both fabric and paper flowers can be hand-painted or placed in moulds.

Artificial flowers made of clay can be made very creative. But when using clay, if it is not treated to heat (burning of clay) then even after it dries, the object remains brittle. Hence, it easily breaks. Once the clay models have been burnt red in a furnace, one can paint on it. An important tip while coloring a clay flower is to mix glass powder into the color. This way, after letting the paint dry, if it is placed in the furnace once again, the heat melts the glass powder of the paint, giving it a glazed, porcelain look.

Flowers made of soap bars are very interesting to make. The process resembles stone carvings done with hammer and chisel. They are mostly handmade and consume a lot of time. Soap bars that are free of oil can be ground into powder and mixed with water to make a paste, which can be placed in moulds shaped like flowers to get the desired shape.

Both these methods allow further painting on the models.

The most popular forms of artificial flowers include rose, calla lilies, carnations and orchids.

There are many advantages of artificial flowers over their real counterparts.

Real flowers have a limited life. The artificial ones survive forever. They are unaffected by weather changes. The stems of the latter do not need to be cut into size before putting them in a vase. In fact there is no need to place them in a vase altogether.

Good imitations of real flowers look as real as can be. Hence, the difference is only felt tangibly.

Artificial flowers don't necessarily need to be copies of real ones. The design and shape depends on the artist's imagination. This increases the range of choice of the customer.

Many people are allergic to the pollen carried by some of the real flowers. Any proximity to them results in serious sneezing fits, sometimes even leading to asphyxiation. There is no such problem with artificial flowers.