Poppies....So Inspiring

Poppy slices I made from polymer clay.

God's Creation

I love flowers and I love creating. It only made sense to learn how to make my favourite flower out of

From our garden

fabric, then they wouldn't die like all flowers have to do. Below are a couple of photos of the gorgeous blooms we are blessed with year after year that inspired me to create. 
You can see why I would want to try to have these flowers in our home all year round. As you will see, creating two dimensional poppies is one of my favourite things to do. Including recently, as I have been learning how to use polymer clay. To the right, after watching many YouTube tutorials, I figured out how to make a "Poppy" cane out of polymer clay. (I will be writing more about polymer cane making in the future.) For now, I just wanted to share these photos so you can see what we can create when we are inspired by God's creation. 

Our garden

Inspired to Create

Most of us are inspired to create because of others who create. God being Thee number one Creator, His creation is perfect. We are created in His image, so it makes sense to me that we love creating. His creation has inspired me my entire life. It is important to use your eyes, and other senses to seek out things that stir your creativity. 

My polymer poppy can- pencil holder can

Capture Inspiration

I suggest that if you see anything that stirs your heart to create, take pictures of it so you have them to refer to when you are ready to create. Ideally, if you can draw or paint outside, in real life, instead of using a photograph, then go for it. Whether you choose to draw it, paint it, sculpt, use textiles like fabric, thread, yarn, knitting, stitchery, cut it out in paper... in polymer clay like I have done already or whatever method you want, create away. The methods we can use to make art or create, is endless. I receive my inspiration from looking at what other artists do as well as whatever God makes.

Photography itself is not only a great way to record images you can create from, but it is also a way to express yourself creatively. Photos themselves are works of art.

My Poppies...Painted

Since this is about Poppies, as you will see Poppies are one of my most favourite sources of inspiration.

The poppy flowers we grew from seeds to plants that return yearly in our garden, inspire me to take tonnes of photos and the photos inspire me to paint and draw and now make using polymer clay and in fabric. 

Over the last twenty to thirty years as an artist, I use to only paint and draw poppies in two dimensions. Two dimensions means the art work has height and width. I wanted to share some of those paintings with you so you can see just how one flower inspires to create. And then I will show you how the poppy also has inspired me to creating it in three dimensional form. Three dimensions are what we are, we have height, width and depth. Ever been to a 3D movie?

A poppy I painted using Acrylic paint. By Anita Berglund Copyright

A poppy I painted using Acrylic paint. By Anita Berglund Copyright

This Poppy - I tried to be more abstract with

I do love blue, this is called an Himalayan Poppy - by Anita Berglund

Four canvasses make up this poppy painting I did over fifteen years ago

My Poppies in Three Dimension
I love oriental poppies and wanted to try to learn how to make my own in fabric. When I first started out, I made a couple as hair ornaments using fabric.

This poppy was made using satin and beads sewn in place.

Organza poppy made by Anita Berglund

Ideas of what you could made with a handmade flower...that's me, Anita

Ready for Lift Size Poppies

After some research I was blessed with the idea to make life size poppies to decorate our home. Take a look...if I can make these, you can too.

They were made using taffeta fabric, a lot of tea lights and matches to melt the edges of the petals. The centre part of the poppy, was constructed using a cotton ball stuffing that has been packed into a stitched circle of fabric including a layer of organza for sparkle and a stretchy black jersey, then tightened and stitched to form, a flat orb, think tangerine or persimmons. To make the pie slice like sections, I jammed a thick darning needle down the centre of the orb with a thin black cord and came back out and back in around and around until the centre was looking similar to a real poppy centre. The black fuzzy stamens in a real oriental poppy are velvet and fluffy. Mine were made with a lot of hot glue gun blisters as I glued pieces of whatever thinnish black string or cording I could find all around the underside of the "orb" centre.

A LOT of hot glue was used...Oh right, the petals were secured with the hot glue and a long 18 gauge floral stem was connected to the center part. Once it was all where I wanted it to be, I needed to buy and cut thin wooden dowels for stability. To make the stems look more stem like, I wrapped them in green floral tape.

Bouquet number one sits in our living area. Red is such a nice pop of colour.

Can you see the divided section in the centre.

Here is one out of two bouquet's that I made. So rewarding and beautiful.

SO MUCH FUN!

This project was so much fun. Even when something is time consuming, if you love it, you'll do it.

The size of the flowers across, are about ten inches. I have noticed that keeping the petals from drooping is tricky. Anyone have any ideas? let me know. :o)