Flowers, ARTIFICIAL. Imitations, more or less exact, of natural flowers and foliage are extensively made for the ornamentation of ladies' bonnets, caps, and dresses, for head-wreaths, table and house decorations, and generally for employment where cut flowers and ornamental plants would otherwise be adopted. They possess certain advantages over natural flowers, chiefly from their toughness and durability, but in their use there is an absence of the sentiment which attaches to real flowers. The artificial flower industry is one of very considerable dimensions, but it is subject to great fluctuations owing to the caprice of fashion. It is almost exclusively a French trade, and the value of the exports from that country alone to the United Kingdom amounted in 1883 to £427,000, from which amount the total steadily declined till in 1887 it was less than £200,000.
The materials of which the artificial flowers commonly in use are made are cambric, jaconet, and other fine calico, with sometimes crepe, gauze, velvet, and various yarns and threads with wire. Small feathers and portions of feathers, either natural colours or dyed, are also used effectively; and for cheap flowers to be used in public decorations, &c., coloured tissue-paper is employed. The Chinese make excellent artificial flowers from their so-called rice-paper (shola pith), and in the Bahama Islands pretty sprays imitative of flowers are made from small shells.
The petals and sepals of the flowers, as well as the leaves of the plant, are stamped out by punches, or 'irons,' as they are technically termed. A large stock of these irons is necessary, as special forms and sizes are required for each flower. The next process in shaping is that of 'goffering,' or 'gauffering,' by means of which the hollow form is given to petals, and the midrib and veins of leaves are imitated. For hollowing petals the goffering-iron is simply a polished iron ball mounted on an iron wire in a handle. It is slightly warmed, the petal is placed on a cushion, and the iron pressed against the petal. A variety of other forms of goffering-irons are used, such as prismatic rods, bent wires, &c. The venation of leaves is effected by dies made of iron or copper, which are nevertheless called goffering-irons.
The tinting of petals of the best flowers requires some amount of delicacy and skill. In nature, moreover, the tint of each petal of a flower is rarely uniform; and the best artificial flowers represent the natural variations with great accuracy. The petals of a rose, for example, are dyed by holding each separately by pincers, and then dipping it in a bath of carmine, and afterwards into pure water, to give delicacy of tint; but, as the colour is usually deepest in the centre, a little more dye is added there while the petal is still moist, and this diffuses itself outwards in diminishing intensity. The whiteness at the insertion of the petal is produced by touching that part with pure water after the rest is dyed.
Leaves are cut and stamped in like manner from green taffeta, cambric, calico, &c. The glossy upper surface is represented by coating the taffeta, &c., from which they are stamped, with gum-arabic; and the soft tone of the under side is obtained by means of starch coloured to the requisite shade, and brushed on when of the right consistency to dry with the proper effect. A velvety texture is given by dusting the powdered nap of cloth, which has been previously dyed of the required colour, over the gummed leaf, the gum having been allowed to partly dry till it has become 'tacey.' The superfluous portion of nap is then shaken off. Buds are made of taffeta, tinted, and stiffened, and stuffed with cotton. Stamens are made of short pieces of sewing silk stiffened with gelatin, and when dry the ends are moistened with gum and dipped in flour coloured yellow to represent the pollen. Fine wire is sometimes used for the filament of the stamen.
The flower is built up from the centre: the pistil and stamens are tied in a bunch to a piece of wire; the petals are arranged in order, and pasted; then the sepals of the calyx are pasted outside of these, and further secured by winding fine thread or silk round the lower parts. Other wires are enclosed with this thread, and form the stalk, which is bound round with green tissue-paper; and at proper intervals the leaves are inserted by means of fine wires to which they are bound, the ends of these wires being bound in and incorporated with the stalk, and concealed by the green paper.
Flowers suitable for mourning are prepared by coating leaves, flowers, &c. with strong gum, and then dusting upon them powdered galena, a natural sulphide of lead, which gives the surface over which it is spread a sombre, dark-gray, metallic lustre. Flower wreaths for memorials on tombs are now largely made of pottery ware, and to a smaller extent of enamelled or painted iron. Very delicate and graceful imitations of flowers for memorials and for decorations are also moulded in wax; but these industries do not come within the range of what is known as the artificial flower trades.