daffodils?

[PerfectDeb]

i have a special request from a customer - over here daffodils are used to remember cancer sufferers and their families. She bought one of my encased florals yesterday and made a special request for a bead with a daffodil in it (eek!) to give to her sister as a present in memory of her husband who died of cancer a couple of months ago.

i'll have a go at anything but even I realise this might be slight beyond my skills!

i can figure out the petals but how to i make the trumpet part of the flower?

[crystalflipz]

How about as a murrini center? Do the stamens, case it all in clear, case that in a couple layers of yellow and then case it all in clear - is that about as clear as mud? LOL

[PerfectDeb]

i have to make murrini?

oh carp! i've never made murrini

i was thinking i could just poke a yellow dot with a thick clear stringer

[Firebrand Beads]

I do it the way Kimberly suggests. Take your clear, wrap some yellow around it, pull it onto a fat stringer, and use that to push in your centers. Then cut it off in-place. You can make that trumpet more or less complex, depending on whether you build it with stamens in the center, whether you choose to ruffle the edges, etc... the hard part is encasing around that trumpet without catching a big ol' air bubble!

[crystalflipz]

Deb, that was my bad. For some reason, these days I refer to any kind of designed cane as murrini - don't ask me why. Basically what I was saying was the same thing as Kimberly, in a much more confused way. Sorry about that.

[LyndaJ]

-Make an encased stringer by thickly encasing opaque yellow with clear
-Start with six dots of yellow
-Melt them in mostly and crease if you wish
-top each dot with clear or transparent yellow
-melt in flat with the heat toward the center of the flower
-pull each petal to a point going by heating the outside of each petal and pull away from the center.
-melt flat again
-put a dot of clear in the center. This should partially cover the petals that you made
-melt flatish
-put a larger dot of opaque yellow on the clear - completely cover the clear
-melt about halfway in
-Make sure you have a good heat base on the bead and heat the center yellow dot pretty well. While the dot is hot plunge the center with the encased stringer. I ususally place this of to the side a bit.

By deeply plunging the thick center dot with the thickly encased stringer you create a cup in the center. The clear dot under that gives separation between the petals and the cup of the flower.

I leave this raised up some if I'm working on a one-sided focal to look more realistic.

[PerfectDeb]

Originally Posted by crystalflipz

Deb, that was my bad. For some reason, these days I refer to any kind of designed cane as murrini - don't ask me why. Basically what I was saying was the same thing as Kimberly, in a much more confused way. Sorry about that.

thats ok - i just havent even approached murrini yet, i just look and drool

[PerfectDeb]

thanks guys - off i go tonight to play

[PerfectDeb]

this is my best effort so far but i'm still not happy with the trumpet part, i keep smearing the top edge

I tried the encased stringer technique but after reading Lynda's instructions again i realised i encased the wrong way around

i'm going to try again tonight

this is fun and a really good learning exercise!

[LyndaJ]

Hey! That's looking very good!

[PerfectDeb]

thank you! i'm pretty happy and the family is suitably impressed.

[LyndaJ]

Now, for the next step in realism, after you've added your stamen and melted it in to the desired amount, heat each cup, and with a stainless or tungsten pick, or stringer pick, ruffle the edges of the cup.

[PerfectDeb]

what stamen???!!!

[Ali Oops]

That looks good Deb, I'm impressed. I was nosey and had to see how they do this too lol