Preserving artificial fabric flowers within paperweights

I was contacted recently by a lady who wanted me to preserve flowers that were displayed at her sister’s funeral within paperweights. Sadly, she was unable to dry the flowers in time, but then decided as an alternative that she would prefer artificial fabric / silk flowers to be preserved within the paperweights. The paperweights containing the flowers would then be given to her family members and would then be a lovely reminder of the flowers used at her sister’s funeral.

She sent me a large bouquet of both Carnation and Freesia flowers and asked me to produce four paperweights containing a mixture of the fabric flowers. Unfortunately, the Carnation flowers were far too big for the paperweights, so I had to disassemble the flowers and create miniature versions of the Carnations from some of the smaller petals. I think they looked lovely and were a better size when placed adjacent to the Freesia flowers.

Fabric Carnation and Freesia flower bouquet

I cast the fabric Carnation and Freesia flowers into a domed shaped resin paperweight and the results were stunning. The resin really does enhance the colour of the flowers and the silk flowers also look less 'artificial' once viewed inside the paperweight.

Fabric flowers preserved in a paperweight

Gill received her paperweights and sent me the following message: "Paper weights all arrived safely, beautifully packaged! Thank you. I love them! I 'm sure my niece's will be pleased with them as reminder of flowers at their Mums funeral. Thank you for the leaflet, a lovely selection of ideas. Many thanks for all your help".

I am so glad that I was able to help Gill and her family by preserving the silk flowers into remembrance paperweights that they can cherish forever.

Mick