The Fine Art of Paper Flowers: A Guide to Making Beautiful and Lifelike Botanicals Hardcover – August 22, 2017

This book is beautiful, and I am just amazed at what you can create with paper! I'm trying to teach myself how to make paper flowers and I hope that I can get this good someday.

I bought this instructional book, because I felt I was ready to graduate from making basic paper flowers to making more complex polychromatic flowers. I will begin my review with the physical attributes of the book. The hardcover edition sports a gorgeous cover page. The book is sturdy, and VERY importantly, the book binding allows the pages to open FLAT. This is important if your hands are full of dye and can't hold down the pages. The paper is not glossy, such that your light source is not reflecting light back into your retina. The font is small, so if you have a problem with small print, you may need to also get the Kindle edition.THE CONTENTS:1) The author begins with very detailed discussion on types of crepe paper as this is the main material used in this book. Also, tips for working with crepe paper and materials are elaborated. Next, she details the basic techniques e.g. cupping, fringing (author states it's her "strong suit") spindling, paper staining to name a few. The techniques are paired with photographs. The photographs are so detailed and CLOSE-UP that you can see the grain of the paper.2) The flowers and instructions included in this book are:Bougainvillea Carnation Daffodil &Double Daffodil. Japanese Form PeonyMorning Glory. Hybrid Tea Rose. Iceberg Floribunda Rose. English Rose two waysPerle d'Or Rose. California Tree Poppy. Chocolate Cosmos. Garden CosmosOriental, Iceland, and opium Poppies. Dandelion. Coneflower. EucalyptusMarigold. Pom-Poms. Zinnias. Dahlias. Double Peony. Coral Charm PeonyRanunculus.There are also leaf construction, buds, and yes, even instruction on making wilting flowers!3) There are also projects such as crowns, fascinators, daisy chains, boutonnières and garlands.4) The Giant Paper Peony is stunning.5) The templates are hand-drawn and actual size. No need to copy, enlarge (yes, even the giant Peony template is actual size). I'm not sure how you can copy if you get the Kindle edition, though. She even borders the area on where to bleach.6) There are six pages of leaf templates.7) Lastly, the instructions are very detailed with step-by-step photos.The flowers appear very realistic. Obviously, these flowers are not something you throw together in 30 minutes. It will take great care to imitate the real flowers. I use photographs. She recommends the actual flower. This is not a book for beginners. However, it can provide an excellent challenge, and you will have gorgeous flowers as your reward! I highly recommend this book!

As someone who had only worked in photography for the past couple of decades, I came to this book purely for enjoyment. After an ongoing illness limited my ability to work in photography, I was hoping to find something satisfying and meditative to work on. Creating everlasting versions of the flowers that I’ve loved throughout my life was just a bonus.It’s no exaggeration that this book has changed the course of my artistic life, not to mention my life as a whole. The Fine Art of Paper Flowers is inspiring, beautiful, and full of care and precision. I want to emphasize that for people with foggy brains or limited energy, precise instructions are what make endeavors like this a possibility! These flowers and the techniques used to build them can be a jumping off point for those who are already confident. With this book, I’m getting there, even as someone who had never imagined working (confidently, or at all) in three dimensions.I’ve purchased a number of paper flower books since I began using this one. The Fine Art of Paper Flowers remains my absolute favorite for its completeness as a manual, and for Tiffanie Turner’s exceptional taste and artistry. Her highly detailed guidance steers readers away from cookie cutter, lifeless blooms. Wildness, irregularity and imperfection are an enormous part of what make cut flowers beautiful and compelling, and this book is so generous with techniques that allow you to create a wide variety of very believable flowers (and leaves, stems, pods, buds… you name it!) that never look stiff or sad. This book is just busting with gorgeousness and technical mastery that must have taken so much grit, time, and love to arrive at. I feel so fortunate to have found it.

The flowers and the projects in this book are gorgeous, and the instructions and templates on how to make many different types of flowers are included and are very clear. Looking through this book makes me excited to learn this craft and has also caused me to look at real-life flowers more carefully and closely. If you're interested in learning how to make flowers from crepe paper, I definitely recommend this book. What I also love is the inclusion of some projects/flowers that are not very realistic in color or size, and I also love the section on how to dye crepe paper in different ways. There are many flowers out there that are just amazingly variegated, and techniques on how to achieve that are included.

I am very impressed with this book. I'm new to this, but I wanted to try it for an art project. The author is clearly skilled and obsessed, which is great because the instructions are detailed and clear. There are lots of illustrations. It's one of the best how-to books for a craft I've ever seen. It's a bit pricey, but you probably won't need another... Very professional and beautifully explained. Her work speaks for itself. I've shown the book to friends and they were amazed that they were looking at paper flowers. If you want realism, this is the book for you. I'm pretty bad about killing plants from neglect, so if I can pull this off it's ideal :)