Very Old Ferns......

When I first started making minis....long ago....someone taught me to make plants from floral tape. I don't even remember who it was now. It was a good way to make plants that were fairly fast and in scale, back when commercial plants were few and far between. I decided to do a few for Zar's trailer landscaping.

I thought I would pass the process on to you. All you need is a roll of green floral tape, some #32 gage green wire and glue....And a good pair of scissors.

I don't measure, because I don't want the fronds to be all the same size and alike. Lets just say that I cut the floral tape between 2 and 2 1/2" long and the wire about 1 1/2".

I lay the tape flat and smear the white glue on 1/2 of the length. Then I fold it over on itself and press it down firmly, so that the wire acts as a center vein in the leaf. Let it dry.

I do the process assembly line style. You will need anywhere from eight to twelve fronds for a fern this size. You can do some painting on these if you wish. I usually use a lighter green tape if I can find it.

After they are dry, go back to the first one and cut it into an arrowhead shape.(see photo) Then cut into both sides of the leaf, close together, to the center wire.

When you get a bunch of them done, shape them and put them in a circular pattern in a pot(or the landscaping) I am going to use these in the landscaping, so I will leave the formation of the plants until I am ready to put them in the ground. I will build up the bed with a layer of dry floral foam. I will cover it with dirt or greenery and then form the ferns in the beds.

I do tulip leaves in the same manner. You can do all kinds of leaves this way. The tulip leaves are done the same way up to the cutting. Then I simply make a long pointed cut on either side of the center vein.

For the tulips, I use green cloth covered wire and put a bend in the end, so that the petals will have something to hang on to when I glue them.

I use six petals. Glue on three close together around the stem. Then glue the second three to cover the seams of the first layer. Very simple.

I a also going to plant these in the dirt, so I stuck them in a pot with floral foam temporarily, so that you can see how they look.

Tessie really likes these and I am going to have to figure out how to break it to her that they are for Zar's garden....Not right now.....

I let her have the pot for now. Next to her, stuck in the floral foam, you can see what the fern looks like. Did I mention that I curl up some short pieces of the green cloth covered wire to put in the center. These are the new leaves coming out.

Anyway, this is Wednesday and as usual, I have to run.

Um.....Tessie...Those flowers aren't yours....

Running now!

See you tomorrow.