Handmade Copper Tulips - 7th Anniversary Gift, Unique Home Decor, Metal Flowers

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These splendid copper colored leaves really bring in the outdoors. The rusty bronze hues work well in flower arrangements.

Ok, so onto a list of tools and materials. Most of this is fairly crucial to the project but should be in your toolbox anyhow: Grab your crosspeen hammer, and turn it over so you're using the flat (regular) side. Using firm, regular strikes, hammer the edges of each petal thin, on both sides - you want to make them so that they can be easily curled at the edges. It doesn't matter that much if you mark the copper, as we're just about to start texturing it. Take your brazing/brass rod and file/grind a point on one end, to allow the nut to slip on easily to get it started. I actually put some cutting compound on the inside of the nut, just to see if it would improve it's cutting ability, and it seemed to improve how well this worked. This is a tall, bearded, Iris in a simply divine hue. The ruffled edges of the petals and sepals and the coloring, as well as the absolutely gorgeous design of the Iris blossom, make this a scintillating plant to own! 18. Austrian Copper Rose This beautiful Butterfly Ranunculus makes you think of butterfly wings, hence its name. The blooms are light, with petals like parchment. Everything about this delightful bloom is delicate and ephemeral. They cannot help but make you feel dreamy.

For the square pieces, make cuts from the centre of each side towards the centre that come to about 5mm from the hole. Much closer, and the copper will break at these points - any less, and it'll be hard to shape the petals. If you're using good tinsnips, the copper will naturally bend up, so you get something like this:

Propane Torch/forge/brazing hearth- a heat source, capable of annealing copper. You can get away with using a cooks blowtorch or a gas hob, but I invested in this as I do lots of metalwork at home. Brazing rod/brass rod of a smaller diameter, around 4mm - this is for the workaround step. Brass is one of the few metals that's really soft enough to be cut without using a die (but more about that later). You can find this in most hardware/ironmongery type places, or online. Remove the corners that you have now exposed, to create four individual petals. File all those new cut edges to remove any toolmarks. Then, use your soft mallet to hammer the copper flat. It doesn't matter if the petals overlap slightly, we'll sort that out later.

How to Make Copper Garden Art Flowers

To clean up any oxidation from annealing, use a wire brush followed by sandpaper - wire wool also works well to get into all the nooks and crannies you've now made. Either burnish the steel/brass with sandpaper to get it to gleam, or leave it dull - both look nice, and complement/offset the rose.