Deliberately unrealistic/abstract fake flowers?

Cafe Society
1

A home decorating question, so I hope this is the right forum.

DH and I have a lovely vase that was given to us as a wedding present five years ago that has been sitting empty on our mantle for most of that time. I don’t dislike flowers, but I feel that buying flowers just to put in this vase is a waste because then they die after a week. But I’d really like to find something to put in it.

Artificial silk flowers never quite look totally real - I guess it’s the “uncanny valley” of flowers? So I had the idea of getting some flowers that deliberately don’t try to look realistic, so they’d have more of a decorative look.

For example, I found this website that sells leather roses: English Leather Company. I think the flowers are awesome looking, but at £22.50 per flower, totally out of my price range.

Or I also found these, made of recycled tin: http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/pastel-recycled-tin-bouquet. But I’m not totally sure if I like those.

So, any other ideas? I have not had much luck Googling for this, or even searching on Etsy, so if anyone can suggest some search terms, or types or materials to search for, I’d appreciate it. Or if you can suggest a specific website/source to buy from, that would be great too.

2

If you are of a certain age, perhaps you remember the large feather flowers that Henry Gibson carried on Laugh-in. I was always very fond of those. I googled “feather flowers” and found some interesting options.

I bet they’d be a bitch to keep free of dust, though.

3

Another '60s accessory, paper poppies.

4

What, you don’t have a feather duster?

5

I have some ceramic roses (with plastic stems!) packed away upstairs. I’m not sure how old they are though.

6

French Beaded Flowers. You can clean them by swooshing them in lightly soapy water and rinsing gently and drying them with a blow dryer. I have seen them for sale on etsy.

7

You could make cellophane flowers. Even yellow and green ones. I do not recommend that you make them big enough to tower over your head.

8

There’s a thread in, IMHO maybe? MPSIMS? about duct tape - anyway, one of the posts in there links to a site that kind of details how to make duct tape roses. (I say “kind of” because I don’t think the instructions are as clear as they could be. You can puzzle it out, but they could be better. Anyway…)

Maybe hit up that link, buy some fun colors of duct tape, and make your own?

9

Found the post - Digital is the new analog came up with the link. It’s here.

10

Could you post a picture of the vase? Maybe that would help us think of what would look good in it.

11

Martha Stewart sells crepe paper flower kits and the ones I saw made turned out quite nicely. Just as nice was finding them at Big Lots for 2 bucks and having a high-interest rainy-day project. Once you figure out how to make those, you can change to felt, fine wire mesh, etc. if that’s the look you want.

I also seem to remember fabric flowers were really popular with crafty sorts, when I was a kid. You cut out petals, dipped or brushed them with decoupage liquid and then shaped them before leaving them to dry. Once dry you just had to assemble them.

12

Oh! I love those tin flowers! So cute and playful looking! If they are in your budget they get my vote.

I was at Michael’s last week in the floral section and they had quite a few not-quite-realistic flowers, you might go see if there’s anything you like.

But I still vote for the tin flowers!

13

Soda bottle flowers.

14

If you like to do fine-thread crochet, or know someone who does, how about making some pull-tab/poptop flowers?

15

I just bought a package of spiral-ly grass-y stuff painted silver, to put in a similar vase. Since it doesn’t look like anything that actually exists, it avoids the uncanny valley problem. Also, sparkly!