"Flowers: Fake it or make it?" - Do others feel guilty using pre-made flowers or prefer just to make it themselves despite the cost of time and materials for the results. 

Since learning the techniques on how to make flowers on Hat Academy and seeing the beautiful results I can barely look at using fake flowers even though they save huge amounts of time and there are some incredible quality ones!  Does anyone feel the same or do you think they still have their place?

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I do both and yes, sometimes, I feel a bit guilty but actually I never just put a pre-made onto a hat without tweeking it at least a bit.  But think about it, if you made yours in advance and strored it for awhile would it then be considered pre-made?  :)

No I don't! Not all customers can afford to pay the full costs of a hat made purely by hand, as this is time consuming and also is a labour cost to factor into the making of the complete item. Sometimes too customers want something done within a set time and it is not realistic to make all the decorations yourself.  I prefer to have various flowers in neutral colours which I can hand paint and slightly reshape.

this is just the realities of the market right now, although some people have the money for commission work - they also set limits on what they are willing to pay and I refuse to devalue the worth of my skills and talent as I do not make mass produced items. 

I would! But luckily I have all the knowledge to make a wide range of my own so I never buy pre-made flowers.


I love making the flowers personally. It takes such a long time, so I save those ones for custom orders. My favourite flowers to make are the leather ones. I find it easier on my hands and fingers. I also am careful which stiffener to use, as the Queensland climate and high humidity can interfere with the long term results. I've seen some beautiful work with ready made flowers too, so I think it depends on how you personally feel about it, but I wouldn't get too hung up on it, especially at busy times like race season, when it will just cause a ton of unnecessary stress!

i get mine from countrybaskets.co.uk theyre pretty cheap!

I make all the flowers that I use on my hats. I do like to make some ahead, for those last minute orders, but so many of my hats are custom that isn't always an option.

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