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2
Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 3
Tissues for flower making .................................................................................................. 4
Japanese tissues or Russian-made tissues? ................................................................ 7
Methods of tissue impregnation .................................................................................... 11
Paints for tissues .................................................................................................................. 12
Japanese paints ..................................................................................................................... 14
Glue ............................................................................................................................................ 15
Additional materials ........................................................................................................... 17
Tools for flower making – brass tips ........................................................................... 18
More accessible and frequently used tools - tweezers ....................................... 23
Velvet ........................................................................................................................................ 24
Where are velvet flowers used? .................................................................................... 26
Minimal set of tools for flower making ...................................................................... 27
Wire .......................................................................................................................................... 29
Patterns .................................................................................................................................... 30
Workshop «Tissue rose» .................................................................................................. 33
The way to mastery ............................................................................................................. 50
3
Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Introduction
Hello dear craftswomen!
I am glad to welcome you on the pages of this book, thanks to which you will be
able to take the first steps in such a wonderful form of creativity, like creating
tissue flowers!
At the very beginning, you will learn what materials we use to create flowers:
types of tissue, from which magnificent flowers are obtained, necessary
additional materials: glue, wire, paints.
A separate chapter is devoted to one of my most favorite tissues – to velvet!
You will learn what tools we need to give the petals a natural twist. Thanks to this
tools we can make almost natural tissue flowers and delight all people around!
You will see photos of my tissue flowers in this book and perhaps you will want to
make such flowers by your own. I will say right away that there is nothing
impossible!
Read this book and learn the basics of flower making. You can also make a simple
rose in the Japanese technique with the help of the workshop in the second half
of the book. And you can also make complex flowers, because after the book
there will be a series of letters with video lessons and large courses.
Are you ready to plunge into the world of flower making?!
Then let's start...
4
Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Tissues for flower making
For anyone who is just starting to get acquainted with such wonderful creativity
as creating tissue flowers, the question “What tissues are suitable for creating
flowers and where can they be found?” certainly arises.
Since there are a great number
of tissues, it is impossible to
answer this question in a few
words, so now I will tell you
about the most frequently used
tissues in flower making.
It is more logical to start a story with artificial tissues that are fairly cheap and
easier to find in stores, but I do not recommend to use artificial tissues to create
flowers in general. As a rule, it turns out not the result we want to see using
artificial tissues. Of course, working with it can be considered as a training session
(as they say “to get a hand”) as with the cheapest material, but I do not
recommend to use it for several reasons:
5
Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Natural silk Rose
Firstly, not only the result (the finished flower) plays the main role in our work,
but also the process of flowers creating. The work with natural tissues brings
great pleasure: pleasant sensations from its touching, full confidence in the
"behavior" of the tissues (natural ones do not spoil, do not burn, do not stick to
the tools in the process), as well as good and simple while dyeing with our paints.
Artificial tissues do not give anything of the above, and you lose a considerable
share of the pleasure from flower making!
Secondly, it is very difficult to get beautiful, natural flowers to which we aspire in
the classrooms at our school using artificial tissues. You will find many photos of
flowers and even entire compositions (these are photos of my flowers and photos
of my apprentices) in this book, and all of them are made either from natural silk,
which can be bought in Russia, or from Japanese fabrics. If you have never made
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
flowers before, or you are just starting your journey in flower making, I can say
with real confidence - everything that you see in this book you can do with your
own hands! It is true and it is proved by hundreds of my apprentices all over the
world. You can make any flowers you want - roses, peonies, irises, dog roses and
many others... You can make real masterpieces... Just make the right choice of
materials, because artificial tissues can play a cruel joke with you...
It is very important for us to make the correct first impression about this kind of
creativity - flower making. The first impression is made not only from viewing the
photos, but also from the first own flowers. Therefore, it is important to start
working with good materials to get great joy from your first compositions!
Japanese tissue Iris
7
Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Japanese tissues or Chinese tissues?
I will start with Japanese tissues, as I have recently been using only them,
although I started making flowers
from natural silk. Japanese-tissues
are factory-impregnated, in
addition, they are perfectly evenly
ironed, so it gives a slight
advantage over natural silk from
China (we need to saturate the silk
with a solution by ourselves and at
the same time we will never be
able to smooth the fabric so
well...). All Japanese tissues have
been tested for decades by Japanese craftswomen, and they are all good at work
and in processing, so you can make very effective flowers.
The creation of tissue flowers is a type of needlework In our country, and it is a
kind of art in Japan. Japan is engaged in flower making, it is taught at universities,
so they have all the production put on stream, and there are a lot of other
materials for our beautiful classes in addition to the tissue.
8
Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
9
Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
There is great variety of Japanese tissues, for every taste, so I will write about
some of the most common:
1. Cosmo-satin: a rather dense and plastic tissue with one shiny side. It is
great for foliage, sticks, stems, it makes any work more elegant. Also it is
used in the manufacture of lilies, roses, irises. It is well painted..
2. Satin is likely atlas, also has a light shine, it has a different density. It may
be fatter or thinner, I use the size "Satin 10". It is not very thick and not
very thin material, it produces luxurious roses.
3. Organza is transparent, thin fabric, painted in four layers. It is used for
gluing petals, leaves and stitches in the Japanese technique, as well as an
addition in bulk flowers (poppies, peonies), it is good in chrysanthemums
making.
4. There are some exotic Japanese tissues, for example Sirulong. This is a
tissue with a long nap, laid in one direction, due to which it has a very
strong luster on the one side. It is warm and soft to the touch and does not
lose its softness after processing. It is something between a velvet and a
plush. It is painted gently and processed by tools easily. This material is
good for everything - petals, leaves, sticking. In addition, the pile is
sprinkled heavily while cutting the parts, so some fine pollen can be
obtained.
There are not too many silks among Japanese tissues. They certainly have natural
silk, and they are popular, but the Japanese have mastered many other tissues
that are perfect in flower making (in process, in painting), and they have already
proven themselves very well. Therefore, natural silk is better of course, but it is
rather expensive usually. So, you can use other Japanese materials, and make
great flowers!
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
The only drawback of Japanese tissues is that it is reaaly difficult to find and the
shipping from Japan is quite expensive. I will give you a link to my store for
convience, there are tissues and materials in it - so you can look through it:
https://www.livemaster.ru/olgayak
Natural silks that can be
bought in our country may be
used as alternative to Japanese
tissues.
I began to make flowers with
such kind of tissues and I can’t
say anything bad about it: it is
pleasant to work with silk, it is
easy to dye, the tissue
responds very well to any
processing (it is very important
for us) and at the same time
the beautiful flowers are
obtained! Such tissues do not
have factory impregnation, so
you have to choose a solution
for impregnation it by yourself.
Natural silk roses
11
Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Methods of tissue impregnation
While flowers creating we use only fabrics impregnated with special solutions.
Japanese tissues come with factory impregnation, and you need to soak Russian
fabrics by yourself (it is quite easy to do).There are different formulations for
impregnation: the most common are gelatin, PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) and the
elixir, which Rina Tsareva and Polina Kuznetsova developed at one time.
Personally I used the elixir, because gelatin gives the tissue bad, cheap shine, and
the tissue is not always well processed with its help. PVA is difficult to find, and
most often it is sold in large packages of several kilograms. And I liked the elixir to
almost for everything, the only thing is that it slightly dampens the satin brilliance,
but the brilliance is restored after painting and processing the fabric. In addition,
the tissue that is impregnated with the elixir, is the most similar to the Japanese
one. After you have soaked the tissue by yourself, you should iron it.
If you are just starting to get acquainted with flower creation, you may see the
variety of fabrics in this type of creativity rather complicated. In order for you not
to get confused, I am posting a detailed video on the necessary materials in each
workshop on creating flowers in our school, in which I pay special attention to the
choice of fabric for each flower.
It should be immediately noted that in our school (“Russian School of Flower
Making”) training takes place via the Internet. As practice has shown - online
courses give the best results to female students, unlike live workshops, and in
order to learn how to make truly beautiful flowers, you do not need to go to
another city, you study in a warm homely atmosphere! Let's return to the
necessary materials for creating colors: in addition to the fabric, we use additional
materials, which will be discussed in the following chapters.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Paints for tissue
In flower making we use only aniline dyes. There are still acrylic paints, but they
are not suitable for creating flowers, because acrylic is not absorbed into the
fabric, it creates an additional membrane on the fabric. First, it gives the tissue an
extra thickness, and when you have 100 petals, and each one is slightly thicker,
the work already looks different, the lightness of the petals is lost, and the
composition itself becomes much heavier, that makes certain inconveniences.
Secondly, due to the fact that it is still a membrane, it begins to stick to the tool
while heating, soil itself and change the color. Therefore, we use aniline paints
that are absorbed into the fabric fibers.
The most common aniline paints.
All types of paints, about which I wrote below, are perfect for dyeing fabrics in
flower making.
The paints of "Gamma
Batik" can be found in
stores for needlework, they
usually are sorted in a box
of six jars. At the same time,
the manufacturer’s palette
itself is larger - 10 or 11
colors. Therefore, if you
decide to buy these
particular paints, then ask the seller in the store about the possibility of delivering
the remaining shades, because six shades will be enough for the first time, but
still it is a little bit poor, there are very few possibilities for mixing.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Branded paint (I will call them for
simplicity, "Davydovskie") are sold
in Sergei Davydov' Batik centre, the
palette of which is much wider - 25
different colors and shades. These
colors are very good, they blend
perfectly with each other: you can
mix two, three, and four colors and
you get very interesting results. There are already very original colors, such as
olive. It is not difficult to buy such paints: you can order in the Internet and they
will send you a package.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Japanese paints
Japanese paints, of course, are great, but they have their own characteristics.
Since they are powdery, you might think that the powder is the same everywhere,
only the color is different, but the different colors of the paints dissolve
differently in water. If you didn’t mix a bit, didn’t keep track of the fact that each
micro grain was not dissolved, a speck could form on your fabric. Therefore, we
must be very careful and carefully mix these paints. Nevertheless, they are very
good, they fit perfectly to the tissue. Another feature is that Japanese paints,
unlike the "Davydovskiy" paints, can be painted on a dry tissue. While using
"Davydovskiy" paints brush strokes will be noticeable if you paint a dry tissue. As
for the price of a set of Japanese and a set of "Davydovskiy" dyes are comparable.
At the same time, "Davydovskie" are in large bubbles of 250 ml, they will last for a
long time, but they have a shelf life of about 9 months. At the same time, there
are certain paints that deteriorate quickly, and there are those who have not
done anything over the years. The most perishable paints are yellow, and, for
example, nothing happens for years with violet paints. Japanese powder paints
have a very long shelf life, which is calculated over the years.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Glue
Glue is very important in our
bussiness. There are so many
manufacturers of glue, but not
all of it are equally suitable. I
use the glue of the Korean
company "Leeho", I buy it in the
online store "Labyrinth", which
has many pick-up points
throughout the country, so you
will not be difficult to get it. The
cost of one tube is about $0,30, but it is better to buy a box at once, in which
there are 20 tubes. He is good because he has two dispensers: a thin nose for fine
work and a wide dispenser on the other hand for more voluminous work. The
glue is quite thick, quickly sets and does not fail the work.
The Moment Super PVA glue is the best glue of the
most affordable, which you can buy at any time, it is
sold in almost any hardware store.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
There is still a good glue from UHU, but unfortunately, I
have never met such glue in my city.
To create flowers, we always use wire, I will tell about it
in one of the following sections “Minimal set of materials
for flowers creating”.
There are many subtleties in paints and different types of
glue while flowers creating, therefore I explain each stage
of our creativity in detail and show it at workshops and
video courses. There is a pleasant feature of working with
paints and glue - as soon as you learn to make 2-3
different compositions with your own hands, you will already have an excellent
knowledge and skills to paint and glue the most complex petals! You don’t have
to learn this for years, one course is enough (usually we make 2 different
compositions in 2-3 weeks), where you simply repeat each step of creating a
composition and master the skills of working with tissue, paints and glue, and also
keep hands a whole bunch of flowers!
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Additional materials
In addition to what I have already listed above, you will also need simple and
more accessible materials and devices:
• Scissors
• Tassels
• Toothpicks
• Awl
• Tweezers
• Stapler
• Glue gun (for very rare use)
• All kinds of ribbons
• Rhinestones
• Beads
• Pearls and more ... Fantasy decoration in our work may be infinite.
Dog-rose
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Tools for flower making – brass tips
We create all our flowers with tools. No matter
how dexterous our pens are, we won't give our
hands natural curvatures and twists. Therefore,
we use the tools precisely in order to give the
tissue the desired shape. Brass tips exist
completely different, there are a lot of them, they
have different purpose - they leave different
marks on the fabric. We achieve naturalism, artistry of our flower arrangements
only with their help.
I will write about all the possible brass tips in this chapter, some we will always
use, and some very rarely, and so that you don’t get confused while choosing and
buying instruments, I’ll tell you a little about each of them individually and how
much we need them.
A soldering iron is our best friend. This is an absolutely necessary tool which all
our creativity depends on. Therefore, the soldering iron must be correct: at 40W
with a cross section of 6 mm. With a power above 40W, the soldering iron begins
to burn the tissue, in principle, you can use it at 60W, but in this case you should
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
be able to turn it off and turn it on when you need it. The soldering iron serves to
heat the brass tips with which we subsequently
process the tissue.
8 brass tips of different sizes, which are
descending. Spools are used to bulge your
details. A nice feature of our creativity - you can
experiment with any tools, for example, make
short lines with some small round brass tips.
Two knives: single and double. These two
nozzles are designed to leave even thin
strips (that's why they are called so). They
are certainly not as sharp as real knives, but
the lines leave noticeable. They are very
convenient for shaping the leaves and
petals in some flowers. Hook. They are
different. My hook is good because it
has a very sharp thin nose, which allows
you to make beautiful even bends of
fabric on the petals. Hook with a thick
spout - a bad hook, they are very
uncomfortable to use.
Two heels: narrow and wide. Both are
designed to leave lines, but unlike knives,
heels can make smooth, slightly curved
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
lines. The main thing is not to put pressure on the soldering iron while working,
but to warm up the fabric with a slow neat movement..
The die - it can be in different shapes: it can
be round, it can be with two or four holes. If
you see a brass tip with holes, keep in mind -
this is a die. Through the holes of the die you
may pull the fabric so you can make round
stems for flowers.
The above tools are included in one set,
which is called the "Basic set of 14 items." In addition to this set, there is an
additional set, as well as a set of Japanese knives.
Two ultra-thin Japanese knives are usually sold separately. Many people ask
questions about the need for these brass tips ... Honestly, these are probably my
favorite tools, because even if you can leave your heels with smooth heels, you
cannot leave such lines as you may with ultrathin Japanese knives. One knife is
absolutely smooth, and the second leaves too small notches on the tissue. Unlike
a double knife, which has a wide groove and the distance between the blades is
wide, it is minimal here and nevertheless it is. And we make small thin lines
nearby. These are very nice interesting tools that I use to create almost every
composition.
Another set of Japanese knives. It consists of 6 nozzles: two wide knives, a smooth
knife and a knife with three grooves. Two medium ones, also one smooth, and the
second with two grooves. Well, the thinnest knives: one smooth, and the second
with one groove. Thin smooth knife belongs to the category of my favorite tools,
because it gives tremendous opportunities in the processing of petals, which we
certainly use in the classroom at our school. In the video lessons, I show how you
may give any shape to the petals using Japanese knives, using not only the
smooth surface of the knives, but also the side one.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
There is an additional set, it is absolutely not necessary, but in rare cases we use
such brass tips (you never know which track customers will order and sometimes
these instruments save us).
A penny is an analogue of a narrow heel, they are almost the same in width. A
penny works approximately the same, the only thing in which it can be
convenient, when a narrow heel cannot reach somewhere because of its wide
surface, a penny can creep in there.
Two chrysanthemum knives. One wide, the other narrower. The width of the
groove is wider than on ordinary Japanese knives, so it is more convenient to use
them on larger parts.
The lily of the valley consists of two parts: we insert the long part into the
soldering iron and wait for it to heat up, and apply a circle or cutting of our lily of
the valley for a small part and clamp it with the heated long part, we get a little
small lily of the valley.
Another very interesting tool is a soldered knife. It has two surfaces: one almost
cutting, like a single knife, and the second is smooth and round, almost like a
narrow Japanese knife. The welded knife is well suited for processing leaves and
wide petals.
Here, perhaps, all that concerns the main brass tips. All tools are made of brass.
There are tools that are made of another metal, but it is brass that is good in that
it heats up very quickly, does not rust and does not deteriorate over time.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
More accessible and frequently used tools – tweezers
Tweezers may be with curved tips, this type I work with at the stage of painting
or analyzing the petals. It also happens with straight tips.
Recently, I have been using Japanese tweezers - it does not have serifs for which
he would hold the fabric, but has very good elasticity, easily compressed with
fingers, and, accordingly, the
fabric does not slip out of it. At
the same time, his tips are wide
and rounded, which is also very
often convenient, especially in
roses, when you need to make
the not quite curled edge of
the petal, but just bend it
beautifully. There are also
tweezers with thin serif tips, it
is also very good when you
need a small curl in small flowers, and I also often use it in roses. Such tweezers
can be bought in medical equipment stores. Sometimes we need an awl to pierce
the middles or simply correct the position of the petals. Where the hands do not
crawl, it will be very convenient to use the awl.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Velvet
I want to devote a separate chapter in the book to one of my favorite Japanese
fabrics - velvet! This fabric should be considered separately, because it has many
features in its work, ranging from dyeing and finishing with the assembly of velvet
flowers.
Earlier, when I did not have Japanese tissues, I enjoyed using velvet from the
center of Sergei Davydov's batik, it is very good and beautiful. Now I have
completely switched to Japanese materials, including Japanese velvet.This is a
rather thick cotton fabric with a very short and dense nap. Perfectly processed by
the tool, very plastic, well "takes" paints. Works from velvet look expensive.
Luxurious pansies, orchids, roses, lilies, gladioli and many other flowers are
obtained from velvet. If you find an approach to this fabric, you can get absolutely
Velvet frangipani
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
incredible compositions, the most beautiful and elegant things, although the
velvet itself becomes hard after processing with a tool.
First of all, the main difficulty in velvet is painting. It is stained not in the same
way as all other fabrics due to their thickness. Sometimes we need to paint it in
several stages, we have small difficulties, but at the same time it gives real scope
for creativity. Velvet is a big plus in painting, especially for beginners, the paint
spreads on it perfectly, and if you make a too sharp line, when the fabric dries,
this line will become blurred and smoother. Just as I devoted a separate chapter
to this beautiful fabric, a whole course is needed to create velvet compositions.
Velvet hydrangea
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
And in this course, as in no other, the most important role will be played by
evening classes, in which I will comment on each stage, correct the mistakes of
pupils and tell my experience of creating different colors from velvet.That is why I
want to hold such a course in mid-September, so that many have already
managed to return from vacation, from gardens and orchards and fully enjoy the
creation of velvet flowers! In addition, the middle of September, usually called
“Velvet Season”, will be very symbolic. What flowers we will do, I will show you in
an email, just as I have sent you this book.
Where are velvet flowers used?
In fact, velvet flowers can be used anywhere, just like all other flowers. They look
great in the interior and on headdresses. Due to the fact that the velvet is dense,
in its thickness it is somewhat similar to the skin on accessories, for example, on
handbags. Very nice small neat flowers look in the form of clips on shoes.
I do not recommend to use it for curtain pickups, because this fabric is rather
heavy, which very rarely fits our curtains. In all the other places listed it is used
remarkably.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Minimal set of tools for flower making
To create flowers we need 4 points:
1. Tools
2. Tissue from which you will make flowers
3. Wire
4. Paints
These are the main 4 points, as well as the accompanying trivia, which almost
everyone has or is very easy to find.
Everything is simple with the tools - a basic set of 14 items will be enough for the
first time, and then you will be able to purchase a set of Japanese knives and
ultrathin knives.
As for paints, as a rule, there are no
questions either. In the last chapters, I
described in detail what paints and
where you can find, and choose your
own color palette.
We should talk more about the minimal
set of fabrics.The most budget option is
of course to purchase fabrics in Russia,
for example, at the Sergey Davydov
Batik Center or at the Olmateks online
store, there are really reasonable prices
for natural silk.
The main thing you should have: a very
thin fabric, slightly thicker and thick. A
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
foulard and an exelsior will be perfect as a very thin fabric, in an extreme case -
organza, but I do not advise it, it is a complex fabric in dyeing for all its
insignificant thickness. This can be crepe de chine or toal as medium tissue and
atlas, of course, as the thickest fabric. Atlases are all good - this is a fabric that
behaves very well in processing, is very plastic and remarkably colored.
As for the volume of the fabric, a lot depends on what you can afford at the
moment or what plans you have for the future. If you only want to try, then it will
be enough for you to buy half a meter of each type of fabric, and if you plan to
engage in color production for a long time, then of course you can take a little
more. In this case, the emphasis should be placed on the atlas and on the
excelsior, because the excelsior can be used as a duplicate fabric, and the atlas is
very good in such most common colors: roses, lilies, tulips, etc. The leaves of atlas
will be good too. Crepe de chin and chiffon I am not very fond of, because they
are poorly stained (very pale), and I love bright colors. And they do not behave
very well in processing, for example, during cold corrugation (there is such a
technique in color dressing). You can certainly agree with it, but that's another
story.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
Wire
Experience shows that our masters have an inexhaustible imagination on the use
of scrap materials. When there are no materials for the color industry, but I really
want to make flowers, the wire is extracted from just about anything, even
telephone cables. But, no matter how you contrive with this working material,
sooner or later you will come to the conclusion that you have to buy Japanese
wire.
We simply do not have analogs of the Japanese wire. The Japanese make it all
sorts of thickness from quite thick to the thinnest thread. Japanese wire is divided
by numbers, the smaller the number, the thicker the wire, for example, size 18 -
this means that the wire is very thick, and size 38 is one of the thinnest. These
wires all go in even packs 36 cm or 72 cm long (most often), each pack contains
100 or 200 pieces. All of them are perfectly flat and each wire is already wrapped
with the thinnest paper. This makes it easy and convenient to paint it in any color
we need. The most common wire color is white. It happens both green and
brown, but white is the most convenient, because we paint the petals and leaves
of our colors in completely different colors, and then we also paint the wire in the
desired color.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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Japanese wire is sold only in bundles and it is quite inexpensive. One bundle of
wire (200 pieces of 36 cm) costs about 250-300 rubles, and you need to have two
sizes of wire, thin and thick to complete the work. One pack is enough for a long
time, it is very economical to use. Thinner wire is 30 size and thicker - 27 or 28
size.
Patterns
The process of creating flowers always begins with a pattern. This is an A4 sheet
(as a rule), on which all the petals, leaves, and pastings are shown for a complete
composition creation.
For example, Rosa Solo
You see the finished composition on this photo. It is made of petals and leaves
from the pattern:
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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Each flower in the Japanese technique has its own pattern. Here every bend and
the aspect ratio of all elements are really important. I used to give patterns only
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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with workshops (2-4 thousand rubles for each). Then I decided to collect all the
patterns in one set and make it at a symbolic price. So it turned out that you can
buy a set of 67 patterns only for 49 rubles.
Link to this kit: https://tissueflower.com/ok
All the patterns are in electronic form - tyou will recieve it at your email after the
payment. Sometimes the letter gets into Spam, so look at this folder after
payment and I immediately will send you a site with photos of flowers on the
patterns. Here they are: https://tissueflower.com/patterns2
And now we will turn to the photo workshop on the creation of roses from fabric
in the Japanese technique. If something is not clear at the workshop, do not
worry. The day after the book you are reading now, you will receive a letter with a
video workshop about creating the same rose. Everything is much more detailed
there.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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Workshop «Tissue rose»
As with any tissue flower,
this rose depends on the
tissue itself. The peach
rose on the main photo is
made of tuali tissue. I
used poplin in this
workshop (to be honest, I
don’t really like it, but it
happened).
To tell the truth, this workshopis designed for those who already have at their
disposal brass tips, impregnated fabric (factory or independent). Dear
craftswomen, do not be offended, but I will not tell you in this workshop how to
dye the fabric, how to make leaves and how to plant a rose on a rose. The fact is
that there is one charming zest in this rose, which makes it at the same time
difficult (until you know what the secret is) and simple (when you already know
the clue) - that's what I want to speak about.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
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1. First you need to make patterns. There are 3 details in the photo below - black
- the future flower, white - a leaf and glue.
2. Important! The fabric should be double-sided (for example, deshin, toal,
josetta, crepe de chine, etc.)
Cut out pastry, 9 (or as you like) leaves and 5 pairs (or 10 pieces) of petals. (Do not
forget that all the details are cut in oblique way!) Petals are these circles not the
square. We place this detail straight on the tissue (so that each individual petal is
at a 45 degree angle). I folded the fabric in two layers, so there is a pair on photo.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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3. The next stage is painting. Remember that there are no absolutely monophonic
petals in a living flower. Therefore, different accents will not be superfluous, as
long as the colors are harmonious.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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4. After the petals are dry, you need to fold them. First in half:
5. Then again in half. Thus, we "grope" the middle of the corolla. We have 10
corollas, we make in 4 pieces a hole in the middle with an awl (these rims will
form a middle part). Here we have the opportunity to hide flaws, if some corolla is
poorly colored, or is dirty somewhere, then we boldly pierce it.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
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6. When all the corollas are folded and punctured, we take up the scissors. We
cut our petals along the fold line, not reaching the center about 0.5 cm on each
side:
7. We process 4 punctured corollas with 2,5 cm brass tip, as shown in the photo:
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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8. We change the brass tip for a smaller one - 1.5 cm. You can use other sizes of it
- it all depends on the pattern you make. The smaller the pattern, the smaller the
"caliber" of the tool. The next step will be the processing of 6 not punctured
corollas. Here we will process not the petal as a whole, but its halves: first, we
process one side of the petal, then turn the rim on another side and process the
other half of the petal. The next petal is processed in the same way, only in mirror
image.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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9. Note that the "convexity" and "concavity" of the petals are adjacent:
10. Now we have two piles of petals:
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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11. We take hot tweezers and pass them along the edges of all the petals. We
process all edges in one direction (from ourselves) at 4 punctured rims:
12. We bend in different directions on the "wavy" rims of the edge in this way:
one petal from oneself, the other to itself (more precisely, we turn it over, and we
also bend it away from ourselves). Pay attention how I make it on photo:
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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13. We wind a cotton center on a pair of wires bent in half. Of course, it can be
different for you, but try to make it fit the petal in volume:
14. I love to make a cotton center "with a spout" so that it is convenient to plant
the very first petal (as you guessed it is time of our "pierced" rims):
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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15. Secondly we glue the opposite petal. Behind them are the 3rd and 4th petals.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
16. So now we have quite a pretty bud just from one corolla. If we stop at this
and glue the back and leaves, it will be very nice (there is such a variant in the
photo with a peach rose):
17. But since dwelling halfway is not in our
rules, we will continue! In the same way, we
will glue the 2nd petal. There is already a bud
more plump, and again it would be possible to
stop, but...
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
18. We glue the 3rd petal! Do not forget to look at our bud in profile - the middle
should not stick over the bud, and should not be heavily recessed:
19. Here is our bud has become even more plump and rounded:
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
20. Well, the last thing is the 4th petal. We glue it a little freer than the previous
one. We glue only the bottom third for this:
21. This is what we should get (it can be a little freer, but it’s not worth more):
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
22. And now I will tell you a "secret" of our rose assembly, about which I have
been spoken at the beginning of this workshop. Put a drop of glue in the center of
the wavy corollas and fold it in a half:
23. We put a drop of glue in the middle of the half-corolla, fold it again in a half
(with a slight shift to the side) and look carefully at what we did. It turns out that
all our edges, twisted in different directions, began to look in one direction, and
the neighboring protuberances became opposite.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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24. We turn our quarter so that the "curling" on the petals looks down and glue
the base of it:
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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25. Fix it with glue:
26. So we repeat for all 6 corollas:
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
https://tissueflower.com/ 2019 © Olga Yakimova
27. That's all! It remains only to fit the leaves and pasting. There are many
options for processing leaves, this time I wanted to make them like this:
The final chapter of this book - "The way to mastery" is waiting for you ahead.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
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The way to mastery
It would be more accurate to call this chapter “Ways to Mastery,” because there
are actually several such paths, somewhere they intersect, somewhere they go in
completely opposite directions. I want to tell you about the beginning of my
journey, how I learned to make tissue flowers, and then I will show you another
ways so you may choose the best one for yourself.The passion for flower making
has appeared in my life quite unexpectedly - I just saw some photos of tissue
flowers in the Internet. I wanted to make flowers that would be completely
natural, which would cause delight and joy every time I look at them. After a little
browsing the Internet and watching workshops, I saw various flower making
techniques, of which only Japanese were interesting for me.
At that time there were no free workshops or courses in the Internet about
flowers in the Japanese technique, according to which I could learn how to make
flowers at home... Therefore, I decided to go to a live workshop in another city
where we learned how to do Iris - it was my first flower that I made in my life, and
it was this flower that served as the beginning of my new hobby, which gradually
grew into the main occupation - now it is a hobby, and work, and rest, and an
occupation that insanely cheers up!
Looking back I understand that I made the right choice when I decided to take a
workshop and adopt the technique from the hands of a professional. As it turned
out in order to make realistic flowers, there are many subtleties and nuances of
working with tissue, tools, and the assembly itself goes on entirely different
principles than everything I had previously seen at workshops in the Internet.
After that, I began to study other flowers by my own. Not every new composition
I got from the first time, to be honest, there were only 2-3 of them, while the rest
sometimes took tens of meters of natural tissue - this was a trial and error path.
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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When I didn’t like the flower, I changed the patterns, changed the processing of
each petal, changed the assembly, and gradually came to the colors that you have
already seen in this book. At the same time, the knowledge and skills that I
received at the workshop on creating Iris helped me a lot. It was not the easiest
and far from the most budgetary way of training (the cost of fabrics and other
materials exceeded the cost of workshops), but after my first flowers I could not
stop!
There is another way - "The way of different techniques", or "From simple to
complex."
You may first learn more simple techniques of creating flowers (for example,
firing on a candle, or flowers from satin ribbons), and then move on to more
complex ones. Such way exists, but, unfortunately, it can lead you to realistic
fabric flowers in very rare cases.
In this case, there is an important feature - each technique is different from the
others, and the point here is not only in special techniques or devices. Sometimes
the differences are so cardinal that old knowledge will only interfere in the
learning process, mainly it concerns the assembly of compositions. Previously, this
path was often used due to the lack of information about Japanese technology in
the Internet, when the only opportunity to lear wass live workshops in several
cities of Russia. And now it is losing its relevance, since in our school you can find
several free workshops, as well as full-fledged step-by-step courses that we do
every month for new compositions.
And the last way I want to tell you about is “The way of the skill transfer”. This is a
training for flower making at workshop and courses. Our school has accumulated
interesting statistics for several years of master classes: after passing one step-by-
step 3-week course, 9 out of 10 students come to the next course.This is not
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Tissue flowers: from the basics to mastery!
Russian flower making school
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accidental, you can easily and quickly master the flowers of any complexity,
because you are in the hands of an experienced master who has already filled his
hand in creating these compositions and will be happy to pass on his experience
to you.
An important fact: despite the courses are not free, it turns out to be more
profitable than independent learning. From my own experience it is clear, that
you save a large amount of tissue, wire, additional materials and immediately
create incredible beauty compositions! Now I read the last paragraph - it seems
that we have a lot of masters in the school. But it is not. I conduct all the classes
and during this time more than 50 workshops with different flowers have
appeared. I would use it with great pleasure to transfer the skill when I started
making flowers, but for me it was inconvenient to travel to another city for 1 day
each time for passing separate master classes. Now this way has become much
more accessible, you dont have to travel to other cities longer, you may already
study at home in front of your computer, which is what the students of our school
use!
Choose the right path for yourself.
Thank you for reading the book! I hope you learned something new for yourself.
The next step is video tutorials. I will write you by e-mail and I will send something
useful in each letter: flower making workshops, articles, stories, apprantices'
results and invitations to courses. All courses are in the Internet, so they are
convenient to pass from anywhere in the world.
I will write here links to the first step in creating flowers also:
1) A set of 67 patterns: https://tissueflower.com/ok
2) Flowers by pattern: https://tissueflower.com/patterns2
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