On Jan 18, 2022, David Todd wrote:
Another historical image of Spring Flowers for anyone researching how to make their own. This is scanned from Illustrated Magic by Ottokar Fischer. It would be nice to see this in color , but even in the black & white photo we can see how the inner part of the petals have a different color, so it gives a nice effect of having more realism than a single color petal.

On Feb 7, 2022, hugmagic wrote:
Marshall used 100% rag paper with a cockle finish (think Onionskin). It came in various pastel colors of yellow, pink, blue, pale green, and red. He would then dye one end of the flower with one color of dye and use a second color on the other end. He made all of the flowers for Neil Foster's zombie. He also had many varieties of blooms. He sold the spring flower business with the silk business to the Sequins in the 1960's. They ran it a few years quit.
When I started making them, I hunted the paper. I finally found and old guy in NJ who remembered the paper. It had not be been made in over 40 years. It was made by a cigarette paper company.

"Spring flowers, surely the most misused articles in the whole gamut of a conjurer's apparatus, when in doubt the conjurer seems to produce a hundred bedraggled spring flowers, in the wrong places and under the wrong circumtances.

Bautier De Kolta the inventor of these flowers, twisted a piece of paper into a cornucopia and spring flowers flowed out of it until they filled an inverted sunshade (parasol) to overflowing. By the way, before I go any further, Bautier made every flower himself and he made them not of the watch spring as now, but of "thin" steel wire which took up much less room. It seems to me that the flowers are never used lavishly enough, it wants at least two thousand to make a show, but you seldom see a performer produce so many, but of course this is a big load. I had a method which arranged for that, but before I tell you this method I have another grouse to make. I had used these flowers for years and never realizing they look most unlike flowers, they look more like the paper decorations which are strung together for Christmas time. I was producing a Chinese act when I noticed this, and what I did was as follows:

I had all the flowers dyed green so that they represented foliage only and then I added one flower representing a white or red rose one for every nine leaves of foliage; there you had the natural effect at once, a green mass jeweled with flowers. The flowers may be all one color or a couple of colors, and should look as much like roses as possible. I beg of you all who are using these flowers to copy this method and I am sure you will be pleased with the result."

-David Devant

On Feb 5, 2022, Michael Baker wrote:

David,

I just got back to this thread after several years. I rarely visit the Café these days (social media overload, I guess).

I'm sorry for not acknowledging your appreciation for the tutorial I posted on Facebook. So please accept a very long overdue thank you!

I am also enjoying the additional information you are supplying, especially the historical references.

Cheers!

~michael

On Feb 8, 2022, David Todd wrote:



Hi, Michael -

Good to see you here again. I guess we're all burned out with too many social media options; I know how you feel !

Here is all the information I've collected so far: https://tinyurl.com/springflowersdoc

On Feb 9, 2022, Michael Baker wrote:
I tried to share my PDF tutorial here, but the Café system says the file is too big.

On May 31, 2016, Michael Baker wrote:
If any of you are on Facebook (SMETalk Magic), I posted a complete tutorial on making spring flowers, with photos. You might have to search for it, as it was a few months ago.

On May 30, 2016, Michael Baker wrote:
If any of you are on Facebook (SMETalk Magic), I posted a complete tutorial on making spring flowers, with photos. You might have to search for it, as it was a few months ago.

On Jan 12, 2024, Tukaram wrote:

Quote:

On May 31, 2016, Michael Baker wrote:
If any of you are on Facebook (SMETalk Magic), I posted a complete tutorial on making spring flowers, with photos. You might have to search for it, as it was a few months ago.

You made that FB group very hard to join... want to click the bot blocking answers... so bad... Those are the best answers, man. ????

On Mar 18, 2024, B.W. McCarron wrote:
I'm having difficulty finding this tutorial. A FB search of this discussion group does not bring up the OP by name, or by the subject of "spring" or "flower." Did some kind soul happen to keep a copy of it? Thanks in advance if you can help me.

Quote:

On May 30, 2016, Michael Baker wrote:
If any of you are on Facebook (SMETalk Magic), I posted a complete tutorial on making spring flowers, with photos. You might have to search for it, as it was a few months ago.