Casting Flower Petals

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Cwalker935

Cwalker935

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My daughter got married last night and I would like to cast some rose petals from her bouquet. I know that I need to dry the petals. Do I dry the petals flat and then glue then to the tube? My thought is that they will be brittle and hard to glue. Is there away to dry them on the tube? I have wrapped some petals around a tube holding them in place with some mesh clothe and have put them in a bag with some desiccant to dry. Will that work? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Cody
 
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Cwalker935 said:
My daughter got married last night and I would like to cast some rose petals from her bouquet. I know that I need to dry the petals. Do I dry the petals flat and then glue then to the tube? My thought is that they will be brittle and hard to glue. Is there away to dry them on the tube? I have wrapped some petals around a tube holding them in place with some mesh clothe and have put them in a bag with some desiccant to dry. Will that work? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Cody
Click to expand...
Looks like you've got everyone stumped on this one. Not a single suggestion. I too would have an interest in knowing the technique.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
I've considered trying this at some point, but I haven't gotten around to it. My suggestion (if you have the time) would be to try a few different methods, see what worked and what didn't, report back in this thread, and be immortalized as the guy who comes up when future turners search "casting flower petals"!

Found a little further reading but from what I can see, nobody has done a "this method worked for me" kind of thread.
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f13/funeral-flower-pens-117491/
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f43/can-done-102690/
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f14/casting-rose-pedals-45679/

Hope this helps and I'm excited to see what you come up with!
 
I have several ideas in the works, hopefully one will work. I have a limited window to work with these particular flowers and want to make sure at least one of them works.
 
I cast 2 rose petal blanks. I let them air dry in a paper bag for a few days then cast them in PR. It took a lot of petals to make 1 blank
 
Cody,

Lay them out on paper towels to dry. That's what I do. There is another way I have not attempted that dries and keeps better color. Saw it once, some kind of stuff purchased from Jobby Lobby. I them glue individual petals to a tube till the length is completely covered. Then coat with CA before casting.

I clip flower close to stem and dry them glue on to the tube.
 
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Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app
 
Firewhatfire,

Those pens look great. One question please. You say you glue them to a tube. It looks more like they are glued to a turned blank. Could you clarify?
 
if you want to glue them to the tube, I'd do it while they are wet and flexible with a bit of super glue - just enough to hold them in place, then let them dry glued to the tube, then cast the tube. If you want to cast them i resin, I'd let the petals dry, then in your mold pour a bit of resin, sprinkle in some dried petals, pour more resin and repeat until the mold is full.
 
Progress Update (or lack thereof)

I am still working to get a good flower petal cast. I am still working on Phil's suggestions but have tried some other things and have learned what not to do.

I first thought that I could use mesh cloth and wrap the undried petals around the tube, let dry, precoat with PR and then cast. The petals dried around the use but were loose. I brushed on PR to precoat and adhere the petals. Unfortunately, directly applying the PR turned the petals brown. This approach might work by precoating with CA or something else, however, the petals will not be tight to the tube.

I also thought that I could press the petals between wax paper to dry. This was a dismal failure in that the wax paper held in moisture and the petals rotted.

I have some other more conventional attempts underway and think that I will get a decent cast from one of those approaches.
 
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