Making Dried Flower Arrangements
Not exactly a new trend, dried flower arrangements are making a comeback and they look anything but dried out when you see the colourful dried blooms that are appearing on social media sites.
2/07/2020
everbloome.com.au
Whoever says that dried flowers are old-fashioned hasn't seen the new trend for dried flowers that are making an appearance on Pinterest, Instagram and other social media sites. These dried flower arrangements are anything but old-fashioned, with their bursts of glorious colour and assortment of floral beauties.
Forget about dried arrangements in dreary shades of brown and grey, today's dried flower arrangements are bursting with vivid colours in pastel shades and jewel hues that are striking and eye-catching.
Everbloome supplies its dried arrangements in assorted containers or as posies.
While fresh flower arrangements are lovely to receive, they don't last for very long, but an arrangement of pretty pastel dried flowers won't fade and wither after a few days and will provide a beautiful splash of muted colour to any room in a home.
For this article, we were inspired by the dried flower arrangements on offer by Everbloome, an Australian company that has elevated the art of dried flower arrangements to a new level. At Everbloome you can choose from an array of beautiful arrangements for every occasion; they offer wedding bouquets and boutinniere's for the bridal party, as well as dried flower arrangements, posies and custom flower arrangements.
Colours are painstakingly preserved or enhanced with non-toxic dyes.
All the arrangements on offer are flowers and grasses that have been lovingly preserved and have undergone a treatment that maintains the natural beauty of all the plants they use. Each flower is harvested at the peak of its season to ensure its lasting beauty. The flowers are carefully dyed before being dried over a period of several days.
The process of carefully drying flowers ensures a lifetime of between 1 to 7 years, if looked after properly, and the processes used are non-toxic and, while these arrangements don't have any scents, their beauty alone will captivate the eye.
Some flower varieties only need a little colour to make them pretty and perfect for an everlasting display.
Soy inks, an eco-friendly alternative, are manufactured from soybeans, and have low levels of VOCs, keeping your home free from toxic smells.
As I was writing this feature, I did a little digging to see if I could find any information on local suppliers for dried flower arrangements. Alas, my search came up empty-handed but that means there's an opportunity for a savvy entrepreneur to take advantage and perhaps do something similar in South Africa.
Make your own Dried Flower Arrangements
In the first video below, you will see how you can preserve flowers forever by drying them in a mixture of Borax and Mealie Meal. They mention cornmeal in the video, but this can be replaced with your ordinary mealie meal that you buy at your local supermarket.
Adding Colour for Dried or Fresh Flower Arrangements
There are plenty of videos on the web that explain how to add colour to fresh flowers before you dry them, but very little information on adding colour to already dried flowers. The video below offers a short and simple way to add colour to white flowers.