Mechanical lift made of flowers

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Gigi

Gigi

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Jun 5, 2006
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www.fleuristegigi.blogspot.com
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I have agreed to make a mechanical lift out of flowers/


I have never ever made anything remotely close to this and I dont don't where to start. Do i make it on styrofoam? Do I paint the flowers after they have been inserted (I have never painted a flower)? and if so, how do i make sure the paint doesnt leak onto the rest? Can I get some help on this, im kicking myself for being talked into this but I feared losing the rest of the sale.
Thanks in advance.
 
Do you have to do it 3D or can you do as a picture ...... what sort of budget do you have?

Take a look at my gallery pics they might give you some inspiration:idear:
 
Gigi,
This thread was very helpful to me when I did a much simpler item than a mechanical lift, but it will help you I'm sure.

HERE

There's some detailed steps that really help get the form & shape right - finding a pic online & printing it to an appropriate sized poster to trace onto styro helped immensely. Painting the flowers, using some kind of "block" to keep the overspray off what you don't want sprayed, and trimming the flowers to points & shapes, helps a lot. Especially look at the dartboard Treen did & the step by step photos she has.

hope this helps - it's a LOT of work, but very interesting to do. Once you feel like you did one relatively successfully, you keep thinking about how to do it differently next time & improve the process.

good luck & post pics!
 
I did try the other night to start a blog on this type of thing but I got bored when I couldn't upload my pics ..... I've never had trouble with this before and I'm sure I was doing it right ...... perhaps someone could help me with that:handball:
 
Thats a real poo as it ages since we've seen new pics from you and as you can see they are welcome (as are you old bean!). Will ping Ryan and see what the poop is.
~C
 
Gigi said:
I have agreed to make a mechanical lift out of flowers/


I have never ever made anything remotely close to this and I dont don't where to start. Do i make it on styrofoam? Do I paint the flowers after they have been inserted (I have never painted a flower)? and if so, how do i make sure the paint doesnt leak onto the rest? Can I get some help on this, im kicking myself for being talked into this but I feared losing the rest of the sale.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Most important thing to remember with paint is to keep adding more coats.
The times I have been to a funeral director and seen a design where the florist has just sprayed it once or twice. Then as the flowers open all you see is white bits.
I have been known to put up to 8 coats of paint onto the tribute prior to delivery. Yes it costs more money when you use say 2 or 3 cans of spray paint but the end product look good.
A while back we had to do a artic lorry, when we delivered it to the funeral director we found that the wife had also ordered the same lorry from another florist. The receptionist could not believe the difference between the two tributes. This was only because we had spent more time and care on our design.
So paint...paint...paint again
 
Thank you all for your replies. I did not charge enough for this piece but i'll suck it up since i'm making money on the other pieces. Not knowing what I was getting into, it was hard to price. I didnt know the paint was almost $10 a can, the styrofoam another $14 + flowers + my time...
I called my sister in-law who is also a florist and she is going to help me put this thing together. I checked out the other threads and they were very helpful, Thank you very much.
And btw Treen, your designs are very well done. I especially love the horse and the Betty Boop.
 
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