Clay Roses - A quick walkthrough

I have been making a lot of roses these days for this coming Valentine's Day, roses are one of the most challengeable objects for myself to make. My journey into rose making started mid last year when I saw beautiful handcrafted realistic roses made from clay online and I was really amazed by this beautiful piece of art. So I told myself to give it a try, I started making miniature roses but they weren't pretty at first. I went through a lot of research and gathered all the useful tips, finally I am happy with what I have achieved and discovered and now would like to share them. This is just a quick walkthrough/ tutorial because it was also my first trial out for a larger scale rose, and I just took photos of my steps. I hope you find this helpful, please leave a comment if you would like to share your own experience in making clay roses.

This is the rose that I made for this quick walkthrough, I did not know where to hang it to air dry... the drawer handle was the last option I could think of. 

You will need :

Cold Porcelain clay (you can colour this clay using acrylic colour)

Wire stick to hold the rose 

Chop stick

Wax paper/ cooking paper

Rolling pin

First, curl the wire into a small loop and shape a tear drop with your clay. 

 Place a small ball onto the cooking paper. 

 Roll into a thin oval as a petal for your rose. You need to repeat this step many times, the petal will become larger as you work through. 

 Hold the petal lightly, use the weight of the chopstick to roll around the edges of the oval shape. 

 This is what it should look like, the top of the petal should be thin. 

 Press your thumb gently in the middle of the petal to create an 'U' shape, and curl the top of the petal backwards using your fingertips. 

 Wrap 3 petals around the tear shape to create the flower bud.

 The trick to make roses is that you need to warp the petal starting from the middle of the previous petal. The two petals will over lap each other. 

 Start wrapping the rose in a pattern. Work in one direction only. 

 The side view. The rose should be tightly pressed at the bottom and let the petal 'fall down' naturally. 

 You can also pinch the middle of each petal between your thumb and second finger lightly to make it look more realistic. 

And now it's done! 

I hope you enjoy this quick walk through! ^_^

Happy crafting,

Lisa