Foamiran (plastic suede) is a material for needlework, reminiscent of a suede fabric to the touch. It is hypoallergenic, easy to cut and stick together, very flexible, easy to change shape, can be of various shades and thicknesses. The special properties of foamiran allow you to create a variety of products, including handmade dolls, various brooches, hair accessories. But the most popular product from this material is flowers. Large crafts can be used to create floral arrangements and topiary, bouquets of foamiran, and small ones for jewelry.
Features of the material and its types
Foamiran is of different types, but usually needlewomen divide it by country of production: into Chinese, Iranian, Turkish and European. Especially popular is Iranian and Chinese plastic suede. But even one type of material can have different characteristics. Iranian foamiran is considered the standard: it is soft to the touch and easy to process thanks to its high elasticity. This type of plastic suede has a finely porous structure, a wide palette of shades, which is regularly updated and supplemented with new tones.
The main differences between species of foamiran
The color scheme of Chinese plastic suede is more limited, but the shades differ in brightness and saturation. Many tones of this type of material are missing from the Iranian palette. But the sheets themselves are characterized by an uneven structure, because of which the products may not turn out exactly as the needlewomen would like. When working with this type of foamiran, you need to make more efforts, because it stretches worse. There are several options for Chinese plastic suede. To create and decorations often use "marshmallow" foamiran. It has an unusual, very soft and pleasant to the touch structure, reminiscent of the surface of marshmallows. In composition, this material is very different from usual and in the behavior does not behave like other types of plastic suede. Because it is used mainly by experienced craftswomen. When heated, the “marshmallow” foamiran greatly stretches.
Sunflower from foamiran: a master class on making a flower from the Iranian type of material
Flowers can be made from both Iranian and Chinese plastic suede. The Chinese “marshmallow” foamiran is more difficult to process, but the products from it are very soft and attractive. In this master class “Sunflower from foamiran”, a variant of making a flower from the Iranian type of material will be offered. Let's try to create a large inflorescence that will look great as part of a floral arrangement or singly. A bright sunflower flower goes well with a bouquet of daisies, freesia or chrysanthemums. If you make a small inflorescence, it can be used to create hair accessories: rims, hairpins, elastic bands.
For a sunflower from foamiran you will need:
- Iranian foamiran yellow, black, green and brown;
- orange and green pastels for tinting petals;
- sponge for shading pastels;
- leaf mold;
- iron;
- instant glue;
- two types of scissors - zigzag and ordinary;
- 1 mm thick wire;
- floristic ribbon.
For the manufacture of the product does not require a special pattern. The foamiran sunflower patterns are made of strips 5.2 cm wide. From the yellow blank, you need to cut rectangles 2.2 cm wide in the amount of 20 pieces and give them a drop-shaped shape. These will be the petals of the flower. 20 rectangles 2.5 cm wide are cut out of a strip of yellow foamiran 6 cm wide, petals are also made of them. Using orange pastel, the lower and middle parts of each petal must be tinted on both sides.
Sunflower blanks
The middle is created from two strips of foamiran in black and green. From a green plastic suede 60 cm long and 3.5 cm wide, a fringe is cut - it should not be too shallow. The tips need to be heated with an iron and slightly bent towards the center. A similar approach should be made with black foamiran. A strip is cut out of it, on one side the edge should be corrugated, curly scissors are used to create it. Then the workpiece must be cut, departing from the edge of 0.8 cm. The resulting part is heated on an iron and bent, as in the previous version.
Plastic suede inflorescence assembly
A do-it-yourself sunflower from foamiran will turn out to be more natural if you add texture to each petal with the help of mold. The Cattleya mold is well suited for this purpose: each blank is briefly applied to the heated sole of the iron (for this you need to use the “wool-silk” mode), and then press it to the surface of the mold, forming veins.
At the next stage of manufacturing a sunflower from foamiran, a wire is needed. It folds into a loop, on which a fringe of green color is tightly wound. Periodically, a drop of glue should be applied to the inside of the workpiece. The resulting middle in diameter should be about 3.5 cm. Then, a strip of black fringe is glued close to the green foamiran so that the central part is slightly covered. Now you need to attach the petals in a checkerboard pattern. Work begins with smaller parts, then large workpieces are glued.
Making sepals and stems
To make sepals, two circles with a diameter of 9 and 10 cm must be cut out of green foamiran. Details in shape resemble the sun - they are easy to cut evenly if you fold the circles several times. The resulting details are tinted with green pastel and processed on the sole of the iron. Both sepals are glued to the bottom of the flower in a checkerboard pattern, after which folds can be formed on them so that the sunflower looks natural.
The flower stalk can be made thicker by wrapping newspaper strips on the wire. They can be greased with PVA glue, dried and decorated with a green floral tape on top. At the request of a sunflower, foamiran additionally produces leaves. They are cut according to the pattern, tinted, processed on the iron and pressed to the mold. Petioles are made of thin green wire. If you plan to make leaflets, they are fixed on the stalk before the floral ribbon is on top . The flower is ready. If you make several of these inflorescences, you can make bright and unusual bouquets of foamiran, which will never fade.