'Magrietjies' Petals in the Making

Magrietjie

The Magrietjie is the Afrikaans name for the Marguerite Daisy, a common  daisy-like flowering plant, that comes in many different colours. It is also a plant that has a personal significance to me as it made up a part of my childhood. My mum had a 'Magrietjie' bush growing in the garden. Playing in the garden, I always played with these flowers and made my own 'perfume' from them.

The two images below show the flower in the stage of the bud. The petals in the buds are packed tightly together to create an almost condensed ball. The petals are completely static and rarely move in the wind or to the gentle tough of a human hand. To create this effect in metal, I have come up with a way to create a roll of petals, made by cutting out petals in a sheet or strip, that are connected at the bottom, and then rolling them up to create a cluster of petals that are static.

Tight Daisy Bud

Daisy bud opening slightly

Below are a few images of the construction of the 'tight buds' which will be static in my series of  five pieces, Thoughts in Flowers. I thought of this fantastic idea after I saw a youtube video of Tastemade where they used strips of sliced apple halves to create a rolled up tart resembling a rose. I thought that this could be a brilliant concept for this piece. I cut out strips of petals on a thin piece of sterling silver, roughly 0.3mm and I shaped the petals with my flat punch to create a groove in the centre of each petal. I then rolled this structure up to create the structure in the third image. This resembles the bud in the image above, left

Bud Strip Being Rolled up

Bud Strip Being rolled up

Rolled up bud after a pickle bath