Props. Large Poppy Flower. Slice of Saturday Night. 2014

I was asked to  make a large poppy for a prop required. At first I was thinking quite large and thought I would make it out of stiffened fabric but after I made enquiries found it was to be about 4-5 inches in diameter. This made me think to make it it tissue paper instead.

(Picture shows the finished Poppy)

 

I used red tissue paper for the petals and decided to use brown paper for the centre as we did not have any black paper and felt that brown would still look acceptable. I chose two different shades of green, one for the stem and another for the leaves.

 

 

(Picture shows the shades of tissue paper I chose and the shapes I cut to make the Poppy Flower)

 

I cut several circles in the brown tissue paper and cut with scissors all around the edge, cutting towards the middle, so to make a fringe effect. I cut several elongated shapes out of the green to make the bud leaves at the back of the Poppy and I cut 7 red Poppy petals. I cut a line up from the base of the middle of the Poppy petal so it could easily wrap around the stem. I used wire for the stem and through the centre of the leaves. The stem I needed to join 2 pieces of the wire together.

(Above picture shows the flower head, front, side and back and also the shapes cut for the leaves)

 

I assembled the flower head together by inserting the wire through the brown centre part and wrapping the Poppy petals around the centre. Gluing it in place as I went. I then attached the bud leaves to the back of the flower head, again wrapping them around the stem and gluing in place as I went.

The leaves I cut 2 identical shapes for each leaf and glued the wire through the centre of a leaf and then stuck the identical leaf on top. At this stage the leaf felt quite flimsy and I did think that it would not survive being used as a prop during several shows. I decided to cover the leaves back and front with PVA glue, with the theory that once dried it would stiffen the leaves and make them more durable. Whilst still wet I shaped the wire to the shape I required them to be and to speed the process up I dried the glue with a hairdryer making sure that the leaf stayed into the shape I wished it to be. Although using a hairdryer dried the leaves reasonably and did give the desired effect that I required, it wasn't until the next day when I went back to the workshop that it was more evident that my idea had worked quite well, as the leaves along with the bud leaves at the back of the Poppy flower head, that I also had applied the same technique to, were fully try, hard and a lot more durable.

(Pictures show the final Poppy, complete with stem and leaves)

 

I tightly wrapped strips of green tissue paper around the wire stem after attaching the leaves to the stem. I covered the leaf stems as well as the flower stem. I also decided to cover the whole stem paper with PVA glue as well to make the whole thing more durable and hopefully to last the whole durations of the shows. I left the Poppy petals and centre free of glue. I finished the leaves off by drawing vein lines on them with a permenant marker.

I am pleased with my final flower and feel sure that it will survive the shows.