Decorative Paper Flowers

These designs, made entirely of paper, remind us of flowers. They are a good substitute, when fresh blossoms are not available. For table decorations, for window displays, or for use in complementing or completing the color scheme of a vase or jar, they are most interesting and unique. Their construction is simply a matter of paper folding and cutting, but their success as decorations depends on the choice of colors in papers and paints.

Bright colored, rather thin papers, known as chroma or poster papers, are best for this work, as they fold easily, can be pasted without wrinkles, and can be painted upon with opaque water colors. These poster papers may be obtained of any school supply store. Tissue or crepe papers should not be substituted for them.

Fig. 1 shows a group of these flowers placed in a painted bottle. The stems are of milliner's wire, around which narrow strips of green paper have been tightly twisted. The ends of these papers at the top, are pasted to the middle of the underside of the flowers. An extra circle of paper is slipped over the stem and pasted to the entire base of the flower, thus covering the joining of stem and base.

Figs. 2 to 8 show the development of a six-parted design. This may be used as a pattern in tracing and cutting the design from any number of colored papers, or it may be folded and cut of any color desired, and pasted on a three-inch circle of paper, in a contrasting tone. Fig. 9 shows additions paint, made to further enrich the design.

Figs 10 to 15 show the development of a five-parted design. Fig. 16 shows this same design and one other, both pasted to five-inch circular backgrounds and treated with further enrichment with opaque water colors. These two designs are now ready to be pasted to their paper covered stems.

Perhaps the most helpful suggestion that can be made in regard to color schemes for these flowers will be through a description of the group shown in Fig. 1 . The vase was painted in yellow-orange, orange and red-orange, with additions of black.

It was decided to carry these same colors, in different tones, to the flowers. Several sheets of poster paper showing light tints of orange and yellow, an intense note of red-orange, with black and white for color balances, were then selected. A number of four and fiveinch circles were cut from these papers, preliminary to the folding and cutting of the various designs.

The aim was to use a light design against dark background, or the reverse. One of the most successful arrangements was not folded at all—it was simply a succession of circles, varying from three inches to three-quarters of an inch in diameter. These circles were cut in red-orange, black, white, and yellow. The result shows at the lower right, in Fig. 1.

It is possible to carry out these color schemes entirely through the use of poster or chroma papers, if a sufficient variety in colors is at hand. Opaque water colors are only used in the absence of suitable colored papers. These flowers should not be varnished.

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