|
|
|
|||
| Go to page [Previous] 1~2~3 | ||||||||||
David Todd Inner circle 2489 Posts 
|
Another essential reference for making your own flowers is 'Victory Bouquet' by Francis B. Martineau . (Martineau is best known for his amazing artistic contribution to the three-volume Rice's Encyclopedia of Silk Magic for which he drew thousands of illustrations and hand-lettered the entire text.)
https://www.lybrary.com/victory-bouquet-p-243.html This is Martineau's method of making a large bouquet (complete with long stems) of spring flowers , but this book would also be enormously useful to anyone wanting to make individual spring flowers for the traditional Flowers from Paper Cone production. $2.00 from Lybrary.com for an e-book (PDF) version. |
|||||||||
|
David Todd Inner circle 2489 Posts
|
Another historical image of Spring Flowers for anyone researching how to make their own. This is scanned from Illustrated Magic by Ottokar Fischer. It would be nice to see this in color , but even in the black & white photo we can see how the inner part of the petals have a different color, so it gives a nice effect of having more realism than a single color petal.
 |
|||||||||
Michael Baker Eternal Order Near a river in the Midwest 11172 Posts
|
Quote:
On Jan 18, 2022, David Todd wrote: David, I just got back to this thread after several years. I rarely visit the Café these days (social media overload, I guess). I'm sorry for not acknowledging your appreciation for the tutorial I posted on Facebook. So please accept a very long overdue thank you! I am also enjoying the additional information you are supplying, especially the historical references. Cheers! ~michael
~michael baker
The Magic Company |
|||||||||
hugmagic Inner circle 7695 Posts
|
Marshall used 100% rag paper with a cockle finish (think Onionskin). It came in various pastel colors of yellow, pink, blue, pale green, and red. He would then dye one end of the flower with one color of dye and use a second color on the other end. He made all of the flowers for Neil Foster's zombie. He also had many varieties of blooms. He sold the spring flower business with the silk business to the Sequins in the 1960's. They ran it a few years quit.
When I started making them, I hunted the paper. I finally found and old guy in NJ who remembered the paper. It had not be been made in over 40 years. It was made by a cigarette paper company.
Richard E. Hughes, Hughes Magic Inc., 352 N. Prospect St., Ravenna, OH 44266 (330)296-4023
www.hughesmagic.com email-hugmagic@raex.com Write direct as I will be turning off my PM's. |
|||||||||
|
David Todd Inner circle 2489 Posts
|
Quote:
On Feb 7, 2022, hugmagic wrote: Thank you for the information, Richard. (too bad the specific rag paper that Marshall used is not available anymore , but it's still good information to know). Do any surviving examples of the Marshall spring flowers exist ? I would be interested to see photographs if you have any. I used the Ask Alexander database to search through Marshall's advertisements in Sphinx and Linking Ring (among others), but could not find any photos, only line drawing illustrations. (it's possible I overlooked some ads with photos; even so I expect any ads with photos from that era would be in black & white). The other ones I've searched in vain to find photographs are the Madblood Creations spring flowers, which were advertised as being true-to-life, in a great variety of shapes and sizes. The only photo I could find is for a Madblood item called "Mad Hat Super Production" , which shows their spring Roses.   ------- One thing I came across in my research was David Devant's advice on using Spring Flowers: Quote:
"Spring flowers, surely the most misused articles in the whole gamut of a conjurer's apparatus, when in doubt the conjurer seems to produce a hundred bedraggled spring flowers, in the wrong places and under the wrong circumtances. |
|||||||||
|
David Todd Inner circle 2489 Posts
|
Quote:
On Feb 5, 2022, Michael Baker wrote: Hi, Michael - Good to see you here again. I guess we're all burned out with too many social media options; I know how you feel ! Here is all the information I've collected so far: https://tinyurl.com/springflowersdoc |
|||||||||
|
hugmagic Inner circle 7695 Posts
|
Yes, I have some originals that I will need to take photos of.
Richard E. Hughes, Hughes Magic Inc., 352 N. Prospect St., Ravenna, OH 44266 (330)296-4023
www.hughesmagic.com email-hugmagic@raex.com Write direct as I will be turning off my PM's. |
|||||||||
|
Michael Baker Eternal Order Near a river in the Midwest 11172 Posts
|
Quote:
On Feb 8, 2022, David Todd wrote: Great info. I tried to share my PDF tutorial here, but the Café system says the file is too big.
~michael baker
The Magic Company |
|||||||||
Jean André New user Metz 72 Posts
|
Quote:
On Feb 9, 2022, Michael Baker wrote: I think to share a PDF or other large file the best method is to share it on Google Drive or Dropbox and post the link here. Both Google Drive and Dropbox offer a certain amount of free storage for file hosting (photos, documents) . Dropbox up to 2GB of storage for free. Google is up to 15GB free. I think you can also publish on Lybrary.com . Most self-published works on Lybrary cost a certain price, but I have noticed some e-publications there offered for no cost. Or even if you only charged a nominal fee of $1.00 for your manuscript , that would return a bit on your investment of time for putting together the tutorial. . . |
|||||||||
Tukaram Loyal user Iloilo, Philippines 227 Posts
|
Quote: You made that FB group very hard to join... want to click the bot blocking answers... so bad... Those are the best answers, man. ????
On May 31, 2016, Michael Baker wrote: |
|||||||||
B.W. McCarron Loyal user Seattle, WA USA 264 Posts
|
I'm having difficulty finding this tutorial. A FB search of this discussion group does not bring up the OP by name, or by the subject of "spring" or "flower." Did some kind soul happen to keep a copy of it? Thanks in advance if you can help me.
Quote:
On May 30, 2016, Michael Baker wrote: |
|||||||||
|
David Todd Inner circle 2489 Posts
|
Quote:
On Jan 12, 2024, Tukaram wrote: Just to clarify, Michael Baker did not make anything difficult to join. He is not one of the administrators of the SME Talk Magic FB group. If you're having a problem joining the group , contact someone who is in charge of the group. It's not Michael's responsibility. |
|||||||||
|
David Todd Inner circle 2489 Posts
|
Quote:
On Mar 18, 2024, B.W. McCarron wrote: Just now I went to the Facebook group SME Talk Magic and in the search box I typed "flowers". Michaels tutorial was the very first result in the search. |
|||||||||
|
David Todd Inner circle 2489 Posts
|
Alan Wong makes smaller white spring flowers intended for the "Flowers from Fingertips" type of production. Whether you use them for Flowers from Fingertips or a production of Flowers from Papercone or a spring flower bouquet production , it's possible to make these look better with a little artistic effort (see the earlier posts on how Dan Harlan demonstrates using markers to add more realistic detail to spring flowers). With these white flowers you can try dipping the edges in colored dye and then letting the natural "bleed" of the ink into the white paper add color or for more control use an Airbrush to lightly color the edges. I realize most people don't own an airbrush, but there are some inexpensive airbrushes available from craft stores and online - https://www.amazon.com/Airbrush-Recharge......TGZBJVY/ Or if you happen to have an artist friend who owns an airbrush see if you could persuade them to spray the edges of the white flowers.
Then have another packet of the white spring flowers that you dip in Green dye, so you have a good proportion of green foliage mixed in with your pink/white blossoms. String up a clothesline with clothes pins to hold the dipped green flowers while they dry (put newspaper or a tarp down on the floor where you do this to avoid staining the floor with dripping dye. Wear disposable rubber gloves so you don't get dye on your fingers.)  Color starts at the edges and bleeds to white. Should be subtle gradient.   |
|||||||||
|
David Todd Inner circle 2489 Posts
|
I meant to mention, the Alan Wong WHITE spring flowers come 16 to a packet, so to make a decent production from a paper cone you probably want to get 4 packets = 64 flowers.
Dye about 25 - 30 of those green, the rest are white with the dyed or airbrushed edges bleeding into white. Alan Wong also makes all RED spring flowers (16 to a packet), but I think the white blossoms with the lightly-toned gradient pink edges look better. Alan Wong also makes a selection of Multi-Colored Spring Flowers (Red, Light Yellow, Deep Yellow, Orange, Blue, Pink) that come in packets of 8 flowers. If you wanted multicolored flowers I think these could also benefit from the technique of airbrushing a darker gradient along the edges (plus add a large portion of the white flowers that have been dyed all green). Alan Wong multi-colored spring flowers out of the box -  This is what the Alan Wong multi-colored spring flowers would look like with edges airbrushed with a gradient.  (*NB: I haven't actually done this yet , it's just a suggestion, but I was lucky enough to score 5 packets of the Alan Wong white flowers on sale for only $12 per packet, so this is a project I hope to start on soon.) Of course, it's cheaper to make your own (in all white or all red , or multi-colored) following the instructions posted earlier in this thread: How To Make Spring Flowers . There are also some tutorials on making spring flowers posted on YouTube. BUT , if you have limited patience or skill with regards to do-it-yourself crafting projects , starting with the pre-made Alan Wong white spring flowers, then adding some color detailing to the edges , could be for you. Adding the gradient colored edges with an airbrush is still going to take some patience and effort, but at least with the white flowers pre-assembled you save that amount of time it would take to make them. |
|||||||||
|
David Todd Inner circle 2489 Posts
|
Check out this lovely effect performed by Nikola Arkane:
https://youtu.be/J1lP1PP4G1Y?t=768 She has a nice mix of white and red blossoms with a good proportion of all green foliage.  |
|||||||||
TStone V.I.P. Stockholm, Sweden 787 Posts
|
Quote:
On Aug 30, 2024, David Todd wrote: Both Nikola, and my group Mystique (timecode 1:03:40), have been custom ordering green springflowers directly from Alan Wong, in units of 50. He's very accommodating and easy to deal with. |
|||||||||
|
David Todd Inner circle 2489 Posts
|
Quote:
On Sep 2, 2024, TStone wrote: Wonderful ! Thank you for posting that info, Tom Stone! That will save a lot of time in dying the white flowers all green. Tom, I can't find a contact email or website for Alan Wong. Would you be so kind as to send me Alan Wong's contact email via Private Message ?  Thank you for sharing the complete show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRnPt5cwrv8 . |
|||||||||
|
David Todd Inner circle 2489 Posts
|
Here's another example of why you should use many more GREEN leaves in proportion to colored blossoms in a Spring Flower bouquet or with loose flowers produced from a paper cone or a basket. (whether you make the flowers yourself or adapt flowers available from magic dealers by dyeing most of them green and limiting the color range).
On the left, a standard dealer bouquet, too garish, too many bright colors clashing with one another. On the right , the same bouquet (touched up in Photoshop to show what it would look like with mostly green and fewer colored blossoms, in this case all red, but can be all white or all yellow , all pink, or white tinged with pink on the edges as shown in a previous post)  There's a lovely effect in Hen Fetsch's book "Milk Pitcher Magic" on page 10 - 11 , called FLASH FLOWERS: "The magician sprinkles a few flower seeds into a flower pot. Over the seeds is "poured" a magical vitamin liquid. A burning match is removed from the sleeve and dropped into the pot. Immediately there is a bright FLASH and a bouquet of flowers appears.". My updated doc on How To Make Spring Flowers. - |
|||||||||
|
David Todd Inner circle 2489 Posts
|
If you make your own from the basic template provided here: How To Make Spring Flowers , you can do more elaborate hand-tinting of the blossoms using watercolor or ink, creating some beautiful duo-toned flowers with soft gradients of color. Or if you have an artist friend see what they can do for you if you don't feel confident about using watercolor or dye.
These were made by the Mysto Magic Co. in the 1920's -  . |
|||||||||
| The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » The workshop » » Making Spring Bills/Flowers (26 Likes) | ||||||||||
| Go to page [Previous] 1~2~3 | ||||||||||
Posted: Dec 30, 2021 07:03 pm 
| [ Top of Page ] |
|
All content & postings Copyright © 2001-2024 Steve Brooks. All Rights Reserved. This page was created in 0.09 seconds requiring 5 database queries. |
|
The views and comments expressed on The Magic Café are not necessarily those of The Magic Café, Steve Brooks, or Steve Brooks Magic. > Privacy Statement < 
|