Playdough Flowers

 

This week's challenge, thought up by me (Laura McHugh West) was to make flowers using flour playdough.


I was sure Laura McHugh East came up with this at first, because I have no experience with playdough at all. Why would I pick something so foreign to me? But I think that is the spirit of this challenge, and what was in my head when we decided to do this back in late 2011 - come up with true challenges: things I am not experienced at, art-wise.


So here goes:


First, I was so so lucky that while at yesterday's street faire for our little town of Half Moon Bay, I followed a friend when he took his daughter to the kid's crafting area, because I wanted to keep talking to him. Lo and behold, when we arrived there, they had flour playdough, including a recipe! I could see the consistency and knew this was the right thing for this project.

I followed the recipe to make 1/2 of it. I had only blue and green food coloring on hand, and decided I wanted a marbelized color for the flower petals, so I added a few drops of the coloring to 2/3 of the dough, but didn't overwork it.


I did the same with a bit of green for the parts of the rose that protect it until the bud opens. 


I used a cookie cutter and had in mind the instructions for when you make roses from icing for cakes: start with a small tightly folded interior petal, then just keep folding petals around that interior, overlapping them. 

I added the green in a similar fashion at the top, turning back each piece slightly.

I was surprised and pleased to see the three roses turn out looking like flowers! My daughter agreed. However, the dough was too heavy and not stiff enough to stay on a wire, so we decided to place them in a bowl, which is how I usually enjoy my roses.


 
I desaturated the color in one photo and brought it in to lightroom because I prefer pink roses and wanted to see how it might have looked in that color palette.

 

I really enjoyed this challenge. I am going to leave the flowers in the bowl to see if the dough hardens over the next few days.