All About Spider Mums!

Halloween has come and gone and now it is time to focus on everything autumn! Mums are pretty much the iconic fall flower so we designed a sola wood flower to honor them! Below are several painting methods on how to achieve the perfect look using our spider mums!

First things first. Spider mums come in a plastic bag with a rubber band wrapped around them because they are a tight ball of small petals. They are unlike our other flowers in that sense but they are just as easy to work with! 

Painting Technique: Hand Paint.

• Top Picture - raw, closed spider mum
• Bottom Left Picture - Use a spray bottle with a water/glycerin mix inside (8 parts water to 1 part glycerin) and spritz down the flower. Gently pull back the layers of petals from the center to open up the flower. Re-spritz as needed to ensure minimal petal tearing.
• Bottom Right Picture - using a paint brush, add a dab of green paint (craft smart "Lush Foliage") to the center. Next, add a circle of yellow (Ceramcoat "Pale Yellow") around the green and spritz with your water/glycerin mix to slightly diffuse the colors.

Painting Technique: Dip Dye.

One of the great things about the spider mums is that you can open them up as little or as much as you want. With just one flower size, you can create 3+ very distinct looks! The picture above shows how you can slightly open it (top right), open it halfway (bottom left) and fully open it (bottom right) during the dip dye process. As you pull the petals open, you want to re-dip the flower in your paint/water/glycerin mixture as you will continue to expose raw petals!

Painting Technique: Dip Dye and Hand Paint.

• Top Picture - Use the dip dye method to get your flower fully covered in your yellow paint (for this flower, we used Anita's "Hay"). 
• Bottom Left Picture - While the flower is damp but not soaked (give them around 30-45 minutes of drying time), use the spin method to add your outer color. Mix your burgundy paint (Ceramcoat "Black Cherry") with water/glycerine in one container. While holding the center of the flower, turn it on its side and dip in the paint mixture. Spin the flower until every side has some paint on it but the center remains yellow.
• Bottom Right Picture - Spritz with your water/glycerin mixture so the darker color blends out from the center and creases. You can also use a clean paintbrush to help spread the paint out and towards the edge of the petals.

Painting Technique: Hand Paint.

Some mums have colors in the centers of the petals while there are white edges. Here is a hack to get that same effect without attempting to hand paint every single petal.

• Left Picture - While the flower is still damp from opening it up (using a spray bottle with a water/glycerin mixture), use a paintbrush to add paint to the creases of a few petals at a time.
• Right Picture - Use a spray bottle to diffuse the paint and use either the paint brush or your fingers to pull the paint toward the ends of the petals.

Painting Technique: Dip Dye and Hand Paint.

This uses the same techniques as above, just after the flower has already been dip dyed in a base color.

Mums come in all sorts of great color combinations and styles. You should try experimenting with different colors using the techniques above. The results can be amazing!