Creating a leather Night Beauty Orchid with a bud, 26 June

 

Participants will go through all the stages of the process of creating flowers from leather.

This will include preparation of materials, assembling and finishing techniques.

The class will take around 4 hours.

Class participation will be limited to max 10 people to ensure personal attention.

Cost of the class is AU$ 60

To pay for the class please pay here

Learning outcomes:

  • Students will learn how to work with a wide range of Japanese style flower making tools.
  • The students will learn in detail how to make a stunning unusual orchid from leather.
  • The students will learn how to attach several flowers to the vine.
  • AS a Bonus, once you completed the class the Tutor will send you a complementary Video and pdf Tutorials related to this flower.

 

Course Structure

On securing your place, you will receive an email which includes confirmation, your Zoom invitation, and the pattern to cut out all the leather pieces ready for this class.

There will be 2 workshop sessions per day. You can select your DATE and your TIMEZONE when you pay for the class by using the drop box.

Please take note when selecting your time zone that it is appropriate to your location

North America, South America, Oceania and Asia

ET (US and Canada); 7pm-11pm 26th June

 

 

List of tools and supplies:

  • Thin  leather, two shades . You will need two pieces 20 cm square from a zero point 3 to zero point 4 mm thick. This should be sufficient for the petals. You can use thin sheep, goat, pig or kangaroo leather (kid leather). Lately I have loved working with pig leather. It is considered low grade leather because it has rough texture and it is easy to tear. But for flowers this texture adds
    extra realistic look. As for strength, it isn’t important when you make a reasonable small flower. If you don’t have two different shades, cut al petals from one shade of leather.

Green or other colour thin leather for leaves , stems, and calyx. We need a piece about 20 cm
square.

If you live in Australia you can buy the kit here

  • Stiffener for the leather. The best stiffener, that I recommend to use is PVA stiffener.

IF you live in Australia, you can buy it for the class here

IF you live in the US and Canada, you can buy it for the class here

The detail instruction how to make it here

If you don’t have an opportunity to buy this stiffener before the class, you can also use a mixture of PVA (wood glue) with water as a stiffener. Buy the glue from a hardware shop, not a craft shop . The disadvantage of it, is that for different leather you have to make a different concentration of this mixture.

Before making a leather flower check on a small piece of the same leather how well it holds its shape.

You can have an idea of how to check it in my YouTube Video which you can watch here

Different types of leather will need a different concentration of wood glue plus water solution. The most common concentrations are 1part glue :2parts water , 1:3, 1:5.

  • Small beads (the diameter of the hole in the beads has to big enough to thread your florist wire through).
  • Soldering Iron.

IF you live in Australia, you can buy it for the class here

IF you live in the US and Canada, you can buy it for the class here (Flower Iron Handle & Controller, 60w 120v (JH41))

  • Flower making tools which you can buy here

From this big range of flower making tools you can use only one of the Japanese irons.

You can buy Japanese iron separately here

  • Scissors to cut leather
  • Disposable, medium (0.25-0.5 inch) paintbrush
  • Strong, Quick-drying Clear Glue, Helmar 450 Or Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue (Not White School Glue) or Hard Japanese glue ( could be bought here )
  • 3-4 Sheets of white paper
  • Florist Wire, 6-8 Pieces (26-28 Gauge If Possible), the same colour, if it is possible, as the leather for your leaves.
  • Correct screwdriver for your soldering iron to change your tool heads.
  • Aluminum or glass pan to put hot tools on
  • Awl
  • 1 piece of soft foam rubber, around 6 in square, minimum 2 in thickness covered by a piece of cotton material (bed sheet thickness) around 12in square
  • Hot glue gun with glue sticks
  • Wire cutters
  • Long nosed pliers
  • Pin and clip (desirable, not essential)
  • Professional tweezers for curling petals in Japanese technique (desirable, not essential ) . Could be bought here
  • Sharp knife (desirable, not essential)
  • A piece of kitchen foil
  • Hair drier
  • Small bucket or something similar to make the drying of your petals easer.
  • Florist tape (desirable, if you don’t have it you can use threads)
  • Double sided tape (desirable, not essential)
  • Threads