Valentines Flowers
Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 3:00 am
Spend a few weeks on and off making some flowers for some friends and family. Here are a couple shots.
If anyone wants to follow along I started with a sheet 12x12in 304 24ga from McMaster. Next I cut strips about 2 inches in height by 12 inches long by 1.5 inches in width (so about 8 pedals per row). Of course you can change up the shape size to your liking. I ended up finding that for this size, 5 petals per flower looked the best and was the easiest to shape.
Next I'd cut the shape of the petal with some green snips. Wish I had a set of reds, but I just flip them over to cur the other side.
Once the petals were cut up, I made the stems. 3 rods of 1/16th 304L chucked up in a drill on one end and a vise on the other and spun them up into 1/8 diameter twisted rod.
From there I found it was easier to tack up the petals first then tack up the stem. That way I could lay the petals flat on my aluminum plate to provide some backing since 24ga is pretty easy to pen.
After that, shape to your hearts desire. I used a hammer/vise/fingers. Always using blue tape on the tools to protect the finish.
Finally hit them with some rubbing alcohol to get finger oils off and propane torch them as desired to get some oxidation coloring.
The copper rose was just a fun attempt. Turned out ok. Hammering the stem out made it look pretty cool in the end.
If anyone wants to follow along I started with a sheet 12x12in 304 24ga from McMaster. Next I cut strips about 2 inches in height by 12 inches long by 1.5 inches in width (so about 8 pedals per row). Of course you can change up the shape size to your liking. I ended up finding that for this size, 5 petals per flower looked the best and was the easiest to shape.
Next I'd cut the shape of the petal with some green snips. Wish I had a set of reds, but I just flip them over to cur the other side.
Once the petals were cut up, I made the stems. 3 rods of 1/16th 304L chucked up in a drill on one end and a vise on the other and spun them up into 1/8 diameter twisted rod.
From there I found it was easier to tack up the petals first then tack up the stem. That way I could lay the petals flat on my aluminum plate to provide some backing since 24ga is pretty easy to pen.
After that, shape to your hearts desire. I used a hammer/vise/fingers. Always using blue tape on the tools to protect the finish.
Finally hit them with some rubbing alcohol to get finger oils off and propane torch them as desired to get some oxidation coloring.
The copper rose was just a fun attempt. Turned out ok. Hammering the stem out made it look pretty cool in the end.
I gotta be honest, I was a little skeptical when you first mentioned this project here, but that's nicer'n I ever figured they'd be.