Craft Gossip

The largest independent craft review site since 2007

Hibiscus Flower Modeling

by

As with a lot of really great modeling instructions… this one isn’t, specifically, for clay. It’s for gum paste or sugar craft. And like a lot of other instructions, they work just as well for clay. Dusky Rose, a UK cake decorating artist, has a beautiful hibiscus to make in her tutorial.

A lot of the tools are identical to what you’re likely familiar with in clay – I use fondant tools a lot – and the finishing instructions are identical if you use an air dry clay. If you’re going with oven bake polymer, bake your initial petals right there on the egg carton (if it’s the paper type like that!) for a quick setting. I’d probably bake the whole flower propped on crumpled paper or a bed of powder so the petals didn’t slump for the final baking as well.

Hibiscus model photo by Dusky Rose.Looking for air-drying clay? We highly recommend Das Air dry clay, we have been using this product for over 30 years. Check out their Das White Air drying clay and their Terracotta Air drying clay version for a natural pottery feel. For larger crafts we recommend buying your air drying clay in bulk

Read These Next

Have you read?

Are Thread Bundles Worth the Money

I recently came across a post from Lord Libidan talking about embroidery floss packs and whether it’s worth the money to buy a set of threads all at once instead of one skein at a time.

With the closure of Joann some people were buying these bundles as a way to build their stash/stockpile if they didn’t have another place to buy locally. I did the same thing when I first started cross stitching again after a break of many years, because I wanted to get a bunch of colors all at once without the overwhelming job of picking colors from the wall of thread when I didn’t have a particular project in mind.

And I think for this purpose buying a package with colors you like or some basic/popular colors is probably a good idea and relatively cost effective.

My Joann didn’t have any floss packs when it was closing (in fact it didn’t have cross stitch floss at all for a month or more, then suddenly go a bunch about a week before closing) but I might have bought one just to have the variety if they had been available.

If Amazon is going to be your source for cross stitch supplies going forward, I think buying packs of cross stitch floss when the colors make sense is definitely going to be a better deal. As I write this a pack of 36 popular colors was running $39.50, or about $1.09 a skein. I used to pay 66 cents per skein at Joann, but buying a single skein of black floss on Amazon would run you $4.29.

Herrschners sells DMC floss for $1.05 per skein or less, but shipping isn’t free and you’ll have to buy a lot (or a lot of other things, too) to meet their minimums for free shipping when they offer it.

Check out the post on Lord Libidan for his thoughts and let me know where you are buying cross stitch floss now if you used to buy it at Joann.

[Photo via Herrschners]