Everything you need to know about sola wood flowers

An environmentally responsible and sustainable substitute for cut flowers is shola wood flowers. Sola wood flowers resemble actual flowers and are long-lasting because they are made from the renewable wood of a marshland plant, not tapioca or cassava, as is sometimes mistaken.

Because they are simple to color, sola flowers are often used for DIY crafts, home design, and bridal bouquets. We've put together a comprehensive introduction to Sola, including our top advice and answers to frequently asked questions! Our goal is to make your floral fantasies come true!

What are sola wood flowers made from?

It sounds easy to say that the plant known as Aeschynomene aspera is the source of sola (or "shola") wood blossoms. It makes sense why they go by the name "sola"!). This is a natural plant that thrives in marshy places. It is one of the lightest known woods and a renewable resource due to its rapid growth. It feels a lot like balsa wood if you've ever thought of it.

The internal, cork-like heart of the plant, known as the "cream," is covered in a layer of bark. The bark of most blooms is removed, revealing thin sheets in the interior. These sheets are hand-cut to create flowers out of sola wood.

Occasionally, the bark is left in place before the sheets form, giving the bloom a striking two-tone appearance. We refer to them as "bark" or "skin flowers."

How are sola flowers made? 

You already know where the wood originates from, but what about the actual process of making the flowers? There are no machines involved—every single sola flower is made by hand. Each flower is made out of individually hand-cut petals from the fragile sola hardwood sheets, which are then assembled to produce stunning, lifelike flowers. It's a manual process that cannot be automated.

Skilled artisans individually create small amounts of our Luxe line of sola flowers by hand. This collection offers a higher caliber of craftsmanship than our already excellent standard line since it uses Thai sola wood, which can have distinct shapes than Indian sola wood.

What do I need to know to select the perfect sola wood flowers?

Despite the fact that each sola wood flower is created by hand, the quality varies. Make sure the finished wood flowers are flawless and created from complete sheets when you go shopping for high-quality wood flowers. Due to the labor-intensive process of maximizing the entire thin sheet, flowers with evident faults are less expensive, but the final product is less appealing.

With over 150 different flower types to choose from, sola wood flowers may almost perfectly mimic any arrangement idea you might come up with using cut flowers! After reading our post on selecting the perfect amount of flowers for your bridal bouquet, we suggest gathering inspirational images and observing the variety of sizes and textures. All you have to do is choose the individual flowers that most closely resemble your inspiration image because sola wood flowers are easily dyed in any shade (more on that below!).

Our sola wood flower assortments are made to be a lovely combination of forms, sizes, and textures if you need a little assistance.

I’d love the best sola wood diy project recommendations! 

We have everything covered! The great thing about sola wood flowers is that they can be attached to anything with hot glue or by inserting a stemmed flower. Because they are such a diverse medium and don't require as much care or attention as cut flowers do, we adore them.

Even if there are a lot more projects with sola wood flowers, here are some of our favorites:

o Bridal bouquets;

Various floral arrangements;

o Wreaths;

o Wall décor;

o Baby mobile;

o Floral crowns

o Jewellery

o Christmas decorations

How do you shape sola wood flowers?

Flowers made of sola wood may get squashed during shipping (imagine how you would feel if you were trapped in a box!). Thankfully, creating wood flowers is a simple task.

Using a little water at room temperature will help you shape wood flowers with ease. To gently form the petals, simply immerse the flower in a bowl of water, tap off any excess water, and then use your fingers.

We would never ship out a bloom this squeezed, so you know! However, we wanted to demonstrate to you how malleable they actually are.

For the same effect, you can alternatively mist the bloom with water using a spray bottle.

And lastly, if you don't want to buy a steamer, you can also mold flowers with one, which is a lot of fun. It goes without saying that you should avoid getting burned by the steam—it's hot!

Do sola wood flowers look like real flowers?

The realism of sola wood flowers can be significantly enhanced by the way they are stained. Not convinced?

However, sola wooden flowers don't start to hang as soon as they are set, in contrast to genuine, cut flowers. Your bouquet will continue to look as lovely as the day it was made. There is absolutely no need to worry about scheduling when using sola wood flowers. Time is of the essence when working with cut flowers, which adds stress to already hectic days like weddings and festivities. You can make your arrangements with wood flowers well in advance, and you can be confident that they will still look gorgeous.

In addition to looking better than silk flowers, sola wood flowers are constructed of a natural material.

We did say that for a realistic look, you should dye your flowers. This leads us to...

How do you dye sola wood flowers?

You can dye your sola wood blossoms in several methods, such as:

dipping (we'll show you how) your blossom in diluted acrylic craft paint

Spray painting—be gentle with your strokes!

Applying watercolor paint to the painting of the flowers using a brush

You can use wine or fabric dye to dip-color your flowers. Yes.

The three primary techniques are painting the flower with a brush, spraying the paint or dye on it (using an airbrush or spray paint can), or dipping the bloom in a container of liquid dye (or wine). We won't judge you if you decide later not to drink it.) Play around and be imaginative!

The easiest method for dying sola wood flowers is to use acrylic craft paint that has been diluted. Craft paint is readily available at craft stores and general supply stores is reasonably priced and comes in a wide variety of colors. For the same result, latex paint applied in a 1:1 paint-to-water ratio can also be used.

Are you prepared for the next challenge? These eight sophisticated methods for dying sola wood flowers will captivate you.

How do you reshape sola wood petals that have uncurled after dyeing?

After dying, the majority of sola wood flowers will keep their shape. But some are more likely to uncurl, especially the blanche and rosa varieties. One option to reshape these flowers is to either curl the wood flowers or dry them in a specific manner.

How do you stem sola wood flowers?

You'll need to add a stem if you want to work on a project that calls for the flowers to be on a stem, such as making a bouquet or arrangement. But fear not—doing this is quite simple!

To add a stem to your sola flower, cut a piece of wire that you want to use, make a hole in the flower's base, take out the wire, apply a little hot glue, and then put the wire back in the hole. Simple as pie.

In addition, we usually stem my flowers right before we begin the arrangements. Thus, finish your dying and shaping before moving on to the stemming stage!

How many sola wood flowers does it take to make a bridal bouquet?

Modern brides can choose eco-friendly bouquets made of sola wood flowers. The lifelike quality of Sola flowers often surprises brides and their guests. It can be challenging to distinguish them from cut flowers! However, compared to cut flowers, sola wood flowers have the following benefits:

Sola wood flowers have no expiration date, unlike cut flowers, which have a limited shelf life and must be arranged in the few days leading up to the wedding. This implies that you can plan your bridal bouquet for weeks or even months, which will lessen the stress and to-do list in the run-up to your wedding. You can also prepare your bridesmaids' bouquets, wedding florals, mother-of-the-bride corsages, flower girl baskets, etc.

Additionally, your bridal bouquet will always look as stunning as it did on the day you walked down the aisle since sola wood flowers hold their beauty for months or even years. This removes the need to pay for an expensive service to preserve bouquets.

Given that many bridal bouquets feature flowers that must be flown in from all over the world to catch the ideal time in the growing season, sola wood flowers are a cost-effective substitute for cut flowers. With over 150 flower kinds, Sola Wood Flowers has everything you need to create the ideal arrangement.

An environmentally friendly approach to designing your ideal bridal bouquet is with wood flower bouquets. Sola wood flowers are produced using a renewable resource instead of harsh chemicals and the demanding shipping and distribution requirements of cut flowers.

It can be challenging to dye-cut flowers precisely to match your bridal colors, but sola wood flowers can!

Now that you've decided to use sola wood flowers for your wedding let's have your bouquet made! For all the information, you should visit our blog post about how many flowers to use in a bouquet!

We advise buying a few additional flowers in addition to the quantity suggested for your bouquet so you can play around with your dyeing and get the ideal hue for your big day! You can experiment with technique and precise color in this way, saving you from using these sample flowers for the arrangement.

What essential tools do I need to make a sola wood flower arrangement?

Craft Paint 

As we just discussed, dying your sola wood flowers is simple and reasonably priced when you use craft paint. A reasonably priced bottle is sufficient to color a large number of flowers. Really.

Clippers

A pair of clippers will help you cut the floral wire for your stems. The URL to the ones I use is provided here.

Floral Wire

Floral wire is used to add stems to your sola flowers. The more flexible the wire is, the higher the gauge number. For bouquets and vase arrangements, we usually use an 18 gauge floral stem wire, but you can experiment with a few various gauges to discover your favorite.

Floral Foam

Floral foam is easily found at any craft store and works well for holding the wires (stems) in place for vase arrangements. Depending on the arrangement, you can cover all of the floral foam or leave some exposed, as with paper or moss!

Some recommend utilizing crack filler foam (e.g., for insulation in houses), although there are drawbacks even with its lower cost. It will expand a lot; therefore, you should first be sure to fill your containers halfway. Second, it's better if you have a ton of vases to fill because once a can is opened, it must be used immediately. After several uses, cleaning the nozzle can be somewhat challenging. Third, once it dries, it's pretty tricky to remove this material from the vase. That's it, then. However, sola wood flowers are everlasting, so you might not have to worry about that!

Hot Glue Gun

The hot glue gun will be helpful for both stemming flowers and adhering them to any creative home décor idea you can think of! We utilize a powerful Ryobi hot glue gun (we call him Vikram because we adore him so much), but since we're pros, you might not need to attach anything at all! You can use any kind of glue gun, high- or low-temperature, for your sola woodworking projects. After many years of hot gluing, we haven't had any glue come free because high-temperature adhesive is typically more resilient than low-temperature glue.

Silicone mat

Although not absolutely required, this item is among the most useful for hot gluing flowers and other crafts. The silicone mat excellently captures the hot glue. After it has thoroughly cooled, the adhesive can be easily peeled off the mat and thrown away with no mess!

Floral Tape 

This is how we attach stems together while creating a bouquet that is hand-tied. We also find that flowery vinyl tape or zip ties work well for securing stems together.