With the help of the kanzashi technique, various flowers found in nature are made, for example, chamomile, daffodil, roses, lilies or imaginary inflorescences. The main material used to create flower arrangements is multi-colored ribbons of various textures (organza, brocade, satin).
To make a flower from ribbons, you need to decide on the color of the material. If you are creating flowers for a belt or for a brooch and are going to wear them with a particular outfit, play on the contrast of colors. For example, a coffee brown flower is perfect for a cream dress, and a white and scarlet creation for a red jacket.
To work with ribbons, you will definitely need a tool that fuses the edges of the petal blank. It can be a burner that easily fuses even multi-tiered petals, or tweezers and a lighter, and a lighted candle will do. It all depends on how it is more convenient for you to work, if you burn with a flame, and simply fix the work - use a lighter. But when working with a candle, you need to carefully hold the petal over the flame, because any unnecessary movement threatens to leave black traces of burning on the tape and the work will be dirty and sloppy.
When working with the burner, you will also need a metal ruler (with which you will fix the work in order to draw a straight line) and a piece of glass as a working panel.
When you decide on the color, you need to come up with the shape of the flower. There are two main types of petals in the kanzashi technique - sharp and round. Each of them can be made two-color, and sharp petals are multi-tiered (2-8 tiers), respectively, each layer can differ in tone. If you create round flowers, they resemble primroses, freesias, zinnias, etc., but from sharp petals you can create eucharis, dahlia, tulip buds and others.
When buying ribbons of different colors, keep in mind that the petals are made from squares. Therefore, when buying a 5 cm wide ribbon for an 8 petal flower, you will need 40 cm of material. If you want double-layered petals in this flower, take another 32 cm of ribbons of a different color, 4 cm wide.
Be sure to pick up the middle for the flower, it can be a button, bead, rhinestone or the top of a festive hairpin.
Creating a flower with your own hands, you can give complete freedom to your imagination and insert additional elements - feathers, mesh, rhinestones and other decorative details.
Start creating a flower by cutting squares from ribbons, the width of the ribbon usually corresponds to the size of the sides of the square (5 by 5, 4 by 4, etc.). You can use a burner to cut the tape, i.e. put the tape on the glass and cut off the necessary centimeters under the ruler. If this is not possible, cut with scissors, but singe the edges over the flame.
To create a round petal, fold the square diagonally to create a triangle. Then bring the sharp corners to the middle of the right corner of the triangle. Turn the work over and bend both edges alternately, so that they touch each other, but do not overlap. Fold the entire work in half, cut off the base of the petal by about 2 mm and solder all layers.
If you want to create a two-color round petal, at the triangle stage, place the second folded blank on the first, backing off 1 mm. The rest of the steps are the same as for a single-tier petal. Make some petals (8-10) and sew them at the base with a thread. Cover the middle with a decoration. Turn the flower over, cut a 3 cm circle out of the tape, singe its edges and glue it to the flower.
To make sharp petals, you also need ribbon squares. Bend each square from corner to corner, and you get a triangle, then bend it in half: you get a smaller triangle, and now bend it again along the median line. To fix the petal, you need to cut off the base of the workpiece by 1 mm and solder all the layers. The resulting petals must be sewn or glued into a flower. You can make smaller petals (from a smaller tape) and glue them in the second row between the main petals.
