Gilded Floras

As a craft maker who reflects on the ways of producing artificial flowers for interior and fashion decoration nowadays, I question why the desire to bring nature into our life ended up with bringing more petrochemicals to our surroundings. The domination of plastics as the main materials for artificial plants has been an unwanted and ironic truth for a true nature pursuer. The project is carried out in hope of providing a more natural alternative for friends who need a touch of long-lasting and easy-to-care joyful plants.

By delving deeply into material research involving agar and the upcycling of waste materials, I innovated a flower making system for interior and fashion embellishing. My ultimate wish is that eventually we will reconsider the overuse of petroleum in favor of this type of flower-making system inspired by a natural material, agar. I further applied agar flowers in making biodegradable floral illumination. The translucent agar flowers gently illuminate any space in which they’re placed. In this way, decorative beauty comes both in the form of the flowers themselves as well as through how they disperse light.

Versatile Agar

Agar is a high-strength gel mainly extracted from two types of red seaweed. It is usually sold in powder form, then reconstituted with water into a shapeable substance through boiling, cooling and dehydrating. With assorted molds, various textures and forms could be carried out in making agar units, including petal units in different multiples, and pistil units in a rich cluster. Agar sheets could be made from diverse flat surfaces. The sheets look extremely like plastic films. It is shiny and stiff. I use various floral shape pattern punches to create smaller components. Lastly, I make handcrafted agar yarns which serve as “threads” to connect all components together to form a lively agar flower. I also knit agar yarns into textiles as the foundation of lamp shapes which could be further attached with agar flowers.

Magical Tools

Even though molds can shape agar into major forms, agar floral illuminations could never be complete without some of the magical cutting tools. Due to the delicate scale of my work, my favorite tool is the 4.5” pointy detail scissors. They go into every corner and make all the sharp cuts! Decorative edger scissors can always be the extra touch for making lively petal edges. 2mm and 3mm hole punchers are the essentials for punching holes in the center of every unit, so each part could be threaded together. Floral shape punchers are used on agar sheets for more intricate petal units that molds, otherwise, cannot achieve.

Accidental Sanctuary

I have made a handful of unique agar floral lamps so far, and majority of them were completed during 2020, when I spent most of time quarantining alone in my apartment. To recall back in April, 2020 when I made this set of lamp titled “Dwelling In The Wild'' for my living room, it accidentally became a mental sanctuary during the pandemic, and it was a comforting substitute for the in person visit to the flourishing spring, which was so unapproachable back then. By continuously making using this creative craft form as my emotional outlet and a way of staying calm and connected during the uncertainty, I filled all the blank space with happiness brought by this spirited material, agar.

My Happiness

I appreciate all forms of flower making including glass, sugar, paper, silk, recycled plastics, etc. Some of the greatest handcraft flower artists I admire are Mr. Blaschka, Cynthia Irani, Tiffanie Turner, Michelle Mckinne, William Amor. I started my distinctive journey in flower making about two years ago when I first applied the food ingredient, agar, to crafts. I create my happiness through crafting flowers with agar for interior decorating. It is a slow but romantic process when I can wholeheartedly focus on delivering the visual beauty of flowers that has always been in my mind. I enjoy discovering the littlest surprises from the natural world as a curious maker, and my inspiration derives from a respect for natural materials and the love of organic colors and textures. I am so grateful for having realized the simplest joy from sustainably bringing nature’s beauty into interior spaces.