How Are Artificial Flowers Made?

People have always loved flowers. Throughout recorded history, poets and writers have compared human beauty to flowers or determined the exquisite brilliance of a day by the colors of flowers. It is probably safe to assume we have always enjoyed the exquisite colors of flowers and that we always will. It only made sense that people would start trying to replicate flowers. In China, people have been making artificial flowers for centuries, but this was primarily an artistic pastime and not a lucrative business model until recently.

Artificial flowers come in all different forms. From higher quality silk flowers to cheap plastic flowers, you can find an imitation of just about any flower imaginable. The slight alterations needed to define one flower differently from the next make the art of making artificial flowers extremely detail oriented and more complicated than it may seem.

Materials Used

The most common material for flowers is polyester. It works great for the petals because it accepts glue and dye better than many other materials while still staying extremely durable. Manufacturers tend to make stems, berries, acorns, and other stiffer objects in an artificial flower bouquet out of plastic. Some manufacturers choose to make artificial flowers out of paper, silk, rayon, parchment, and cotton. You will often find stems made from wires wrapped in a special, durable paper.

Process of Manufacturing Artificial Flowers

Upscale flower makers will design their flowers based on a fresh model. If they want to make an artificial rose, they will pluck a rose petal and design a die that will cut artificial petals to match this model. Most flowers are made of cotton, silk, or rayon.

An artist cuts the flowers with the specially designed die then paints each petal, moving from the edge to the center. The artist does this with cotton balls to get every detail exactly right. This process can take up to an hour per petal on extremely high-end pieces.

Special molds give the petals their texture. This part of the process gives the petals their contours, wrinkles, and veins. This process often separates the highest quality artificial flowers from the rest.

Finally, each individual flower and petal is attached by hand. Sometimes multiple flowers make up a stem, and sometimes one flower sits atop a stem. After the assembly process, the artists pack up the flowers.

Find Beautiful Artificial Flowers at Martin’s Floral

At Martin’s Floral, you can find the perfect artificial flowers and flower arrangements for your event, office, or home. Contact or visit Martin’s Floral today to find exactly what your decor is missing.