As August rolls around, so do the festivities.
Marigolds are a huge part of Indian tradition- we've all seen the garlands hanging off idols, statues, hung at weddings and strung onto cars and bikes during Dusherra.
And every year as the flowers dry up, we watch them wither until finally taking them down a few days later. I've always felt bad about throwing away flowers, be it a bouquet or a garland; Mother nature takes so much effort to make them bloom and then we simply pluck them off the plant to let them die, but it is so hard to deny their beauty!
Artificial flowers- a simple solution to solve the problem of wasted flowers.
Although we haven't yet been able to recreate the sweet scent of the flower, we have managed to make a very convincing look a like from paper!
Here are the video instructions for this craft:
Supplies you need are:
Orange paper circles
Stapler
Glue
A pair of scissors
You can find the materials needed to make these flowers in the Orangecraft VIBGYOR kit "B"
1) Stack 6 paper circles together and staple them in the center.
2) Make several slits around the edges. Don't cut the paper till the staples in the center, only till about half way there (as I've indicated in the photo)
3) Crumple the paper towards the middle. Do this 1 layer at a time. The more you crush, the better the flower will look!
4) Once you have crushed all the layers, fluff them out a little.
5) Each flower needs 2 halves like this.
6) apply some glue to the back of each flower and stick the 2 halves together.
Go ahead and make several of these flowers to string together in a garland- using green paper Ashoka leaves between each flower will give the garland even more detail.
Here are some more ideas to use these flowers:
Of course please feel free to apply this technique to make flowers of different colours- they also make great carnations!
- Pia