ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS. Few employ ments of a mechanical or manipulative nature are more beautiful in their results than the production of artificial or imitative flowers. Nothing can well exceed the faithfulness of these imitations ; every petal, every leaf, every calyx, every bud, is imitated with an accuracy which must have required long observation and much ingenuity on the part of those who have practised this art. A lady may for a shilling procure one of these delicate produc tions, such as would be deemed a fitting orna ment for her attire ; but a curious enquirer might also find a shilling not ill-spent, merely for the instruction to be derived from a dissec tion of this flower, with a view to study its mechanical anatomy.
The petals of flowers are imitated by rib bons, feathers, silk-worm cocoons, cambric, taffeta, velvet, or thin laminae of whalebone shaped and coloured for the purpose. The stems are mostly formed of wires, wrapped round with paper, silk, or some other material of the requisite colour. The leaves and petals are mostly cut and embossed by stamping with dies having sharp cutting edges, and are united together by means of wires and paste or ce ment. The modes of colouring are exceed ingly various. Seeds and similar objects, and small fruits, such as currants, are imitated by wax, glass, and other substances. Very beau.. tiful imitations of some plants are made with wax, rice-paper, and shells.
This manufacture is generally carried on in private houses, where a large number of per sons (mostly females) work together, each taking certain departments, according to the principle of the division of labour ; and the whole product is then sold to wholsale dealers, who supply the retail shops.
Our French neighbours are especially dis tinguished in this art ; all their delicacy of taste is brought to bear upon it ; and we may reasonably expect that the Great Exhibition of 1851will afford a favourable display of their skill. M. Lupin, in his recent letter to the French manufacturers, says Let us not forget a branch of trade which, assiduously studied, rivals nature itself ; this is the pro duction of artificial flowers in every possible variety. Of these, France sells to the extent of a million francs (40,0001.) to the foreigner; and England, with the United States, pur chases more than half this amount.'
We will take a rose, as a specimen of French imitative manufacture. The petals, the leaves, the calyx, the buds, the stamens, the stalk—all require distinct processes. First, for the petals. These arc made of the finest cambric, which is cut out with punches; there being as many different sized punches as there are different sizes in the petals of a rose. Each petal is held by pincers at the extreme end, dipped into a carmine dye, then dipped into water to soften the tint at the edges, then touched with a brush to deepen the tint near the centre ; and auy little variegated spots, or even blem ishes, aro imitated by tinting with a brush. Next for the leaves. These are made of Flo rence sarcenet, which is dyed to the proper colour, stretched while wet that it may dry out perfectly smooth ; the glazed surface of the leaf is imitated by coating the sasecnet with thin gum-water ; while the velvety texture of the under surface is imitated either by a wash of coloured starch water, or by a layer of flock or cloth powder, such as is used in making flock paper-hangings. To imitate the ribs which form such a peculiar and beautiful characteristic of the leaves, several leaves, placed one upon another, are pressed between yaufroirs or goffering-irons, cut with the re quired indentations. Then we have the leaf lets which form the calyx; the sarcenet for these is stiffened with starch water while yet wet from the dyeing ; and when dry, the material is cut to the proper size and shape by punches. The buds are made of sarcenet or of kid, dyed or painted according to circum stances ; they are swelled out to the proper shape by a stuffing of cotton, gummed flax, or crumb of bread, and are tied with silk at the end of thin iron wires. The stances are mado of silk, fixed at the ends of brass wires, and so shaped that the wire shall imitate the filament and the silk the anther; the silk anther being dipped into a glutinous liquid, is made to re tain some very small seeds which imitate the pollen. Lastly comes the building-up of the delicate structure ; the stalk is made of iron wire, coated with cotton and green paper; and around this stalk are grouped and fastened the several parts which together form the imi tative rose.