6 minute read
Five-fold symmetry, and why so many flowers use it
Roses, apple blossom, buttercups and hibiscus all repeat the same arrangement, and there's a reason for it.
Read itForm and symmetry
Why flowers look the way they do
A handmade flower that looks convincing is almost never a literal copy. It's a set of decisions about which properties of the real thing to keep and which to let go, and those decisions are what make it look alive rather than merely floral.
Most of those decisions come back to symmetry and proportion. Real flowers repeat a small number of arrangements with remarkable consistency, and knowing which arrangement you're building changes every choice you make afterwards.
These articles are about looking rather than making. They're the ones most useful to somebody who has no intention of ever picking up a pair of pliers.
In this section
5 minute read
The vesica: the shape almost every petal is hiding
Two overlapping circles produce the outline underneath most petals you'll ever draw.
Read it5 minute read
Scale, silhouette, and why bouquets are built inside a sphere
The outline is what a person sees from the doorway, and everything inside it is detail.
Read itElsewhere in the guide
Technique
There are three moves: the loop, the bind and the wrap. Here's what the hands are doing, and why each step is done the way it is.
Materials
Wire remembers, fibre catches light, and the cheapest component in the room decides almost everything about the finished piece.
Traditions
People have made flowers from paper, silk, wax and wire for a very long time, and almost always for the same reason.
Conservation
Light, humidity, oxidation and handling. We cover which of them matter, which are myths, and what conservators do about each.