Sola wood flowers (or shola) are an eco-friendly and sustainable alternative to cut flowers. Made from the renewable wood of a marshy plant (not tapioca or cassava as commonly misunderstood), sola wood flowers look like real flowers and last a lifetime.
Sola flowers are easy to dye and are popular for bridal bouquets, DIY crafts and interior decoration. We’ve put together your complete guide to sola, answering commonly-asked questions and sharing our best tips! We’re here to help your floral dreams come true!
Sola (or ‘shola’) wood flowers are made from a plant called Aeschynomene aspera (rolls off the tongue, right? No wonder they’re simply called ‘sola’!). It’s a plant that grows wild in marsh areas. Because it grows quickly, it is a renewable resource and one of the lightest known woods. If you’ve ever touched balsa wood before, it’s a very similar feeling.
The plant has a layer of bark that covers the internal, cork-like center of the plant (called the ‘cream’). In most flowers, the bark is stripped and the center is made into thin sheets. It is these sheets that are hand-cut to make sola wood flowers.
Sometimes, the bark is left on before the creation of sheets, creating a unique two-tone effect on the flower. These are called ‘bark’ or ‘skin flowers’.
We’ve already told you about where the wood comes from, but how are the flowers actually created? Every single sola flower is created by hand and no machines are used. Every flower is composed of petals that are hand-cut from the delicate sola wooden sheets, and then composed to create gorgeous, realistic flowers. It’s an artisanal process that can’t be mechanized.
Our Luxe line of sola flowers is individually hand-crafted in small batches by skilled artisans. Using sola wood from Thailand, which can be shaped differently than the sola wood from India, this collection delivers an elevated level of craftsmanship over and above our already top-quality regular line.
Even though all sola wood flowers are made by hand, there are differences in terms of quality. When shopping for high-quality wood flowers, you want to ensure that the flowers are made from whole sheets and that the final flowers do not have any flaws. Flowers with visible flaws are less expensive (produced by the desire to maximize the entire thin sheet, which is time-consuming to produce), but result in a less-desirable finished product.
Sola wood flowers are available in over 150 flower styles, so pretty much any bouquet idea you could create with cut flowers can be replicated with sola! You’ll want to read our post on selecting the ideal number of flowers for your bridal bouquet, and then from there, we recommend collecting inspiration photos and noting the mix of sizes and textures. Sola wood flowers can easily be dyed any shade (more info on that, below!), so all you need to do is select the individual flowers that best match your inspiration image.
If you’d like a little help, our sola wood flower assortments are designed to be a beautiful blend of shapes, sizes and textures.
We’ve got you covered! The amazing thing is that if you can hot glue a flower onto it or stick a stemmed flower into it… you can do it with sola wood flowers. We love them so much because they are such a versatile medium (and you don’t have to worry about watering or wilting like you do with cut flowers).
While the list would be a truly long one, these are some of our favorite projects with sola wood flowers:
o Wedding bouquets
o floral arrangements of all sorts
o wreaths
o wall decor
o baby mobile
o floral crowns
o jewelry
o holiday ornaments
Can’t wait to get started on your next project? We’ve gathered our 5 most popular sola wood flower tutorials right here for you:
Want even more inspiration? You’ll want to check out our tutorials for inspiration as well as our facebook page, where we post craft projects twice a week. Also, check out our sola wood flower project video library!
Sola wood flowers can become squished in the box from shipping (you would be too if you were stuck in a box!). Fortunately, shaping wood flowers is easy to do.
Wood flowers are easily shaped by using a bit of room temperature water. Simply place the flower into a bowl of water, tap off the extra water and then use your fingers to gently shape the petals. Here is a quick video we’ve made that shows you this method:
Just so you know, we would never ship out a flower that is this squished! But we wanted to show you that they really are quite shape-able.
You can also use a spray bottle of water to moisten the flower for the same effect.
Finally, you can also shape flowers using a steamer, which is super-fun (but not necessary if you don’t want to invest in a steamer). Obviously, don’t allow your hand to get burned by the steam… it’s hot!
Depending on how the flowers are dyed, sola wood flowers can look very realistic. Don’t believe it? Have a look at this gorgeous bouquet:
But unlike real, cut flowers, sola wooden flowers don’t begin drooping the minute they’re arranged. Your bouquet will remain just as beautiful as the day it was created. With sola wood flowers, you don’t need to worry about timing at all. With cut flowers, time is of the essence, adding stress to already-busy days like weddings and parties. With wood flowers, you can create your arrangements well in advance and rest assured that the arrangement will still look stunning.
Sola wood flowers have a superior look to silk flowers, and have the bonus of being made from a natural material.
Did we mention that you’ll want to dye your flowers for a realistic look? That brings us to...
There are a number of ways to dye your sola wood flowers, including:
The three basic methods are using a brush to paint the dye on, spraying the dye/paint on (such as with a spray paint can or airbrush) or dipping the flower in a container filled with the liquid dye (or wine. You probably don’t want to drink it afterwards, but we won’t judge.) Have fun and get creative!
The simplest way to dye sola wood flowers is to use watered-down acrylic craft paint. Craft paint is affordable, comes in tons of colors and is easy to find at any craft store or even general supply store. Check out our step-by-step tutorial for how to dye sola wood flowers with acrylic paint. You can also use latex paint (with a 1:1 paint to water ratio) for the same effect.
Ready for the next level? You’ll love these 8 advanced techniques for dyeing sola wood flowers.
Most sola wood flowers will retain their shape after dyeing. However, the rosa and blanche particularly, are prone to uncurling. The techniques for reshaping these flowers is either to dry them in a particular way or to recurl the wood flowers. Here is a youtube tutorial we did showing a few other dyeing techniques including those flowers that can be a bit tricky!
If you’d like to do a project that requires the flowers to be on a stem (such as creating a flower arrangement or bouquet), then you’ll need to add a stem. But fret not, this is SUPER easy to do!
To add a stem to your sola flower, simply cut a piece of wire (that you’d like to use as a stem), poke a hole in the base of the flower, remove the wire and add a dab of hot glue, and then re-insert the wire into the hole you created. Easy-peasy.
Want to see that in action (plus a few more tips)? Here is a video tutorial:
As a side note, we typically stem my flowers as the last step before starting the arrangements. So, get your shaping and dyeing done before you do the stemming step!
Sola wood flowers are an eco-friendly choice for bouquets for the modern bride. Brides (and their guests!) are often surprised by how realistic quality sola flowers look… they can be difficult to tell apart from cut flowers! But sola wood flowers have a number of advantages over cut flowers:
Now that you’ve chosen sola wood flowers to make your wedding dreams come true, let’s get started making your bouquet! You’ll want to head on over to our blog post how many flowers do you need for a bouquet for the full details!
In addition to purchasing the number of flowers recommended for your bouquet, we recommend buying a few extra flowers to allow you to experiment with your dyeing and find the perfect color for your special day! This allows you to play around with your technique and exact color without needing to use these sample flowers for the bouquet.
Craft Paint
As we mentioned above, craft paint is an easy and affordable way to dye your sola wood flowers. One bottle (which isn’t expensive!) will dye A LOT of flowers. Really.
Clippers
To cut the floral wire for your stems, you’ll want a pair of clippers. Here is the link to the ones I use.
Floral Wire
In order to add stems to your sola flowers, you’ll want floral wire. The higher the gauge number, the more flexible the wire is. We typically use an 18 gauge floral stem wire for vase arrangements as well as bouquets, but we recommend playing with a few different gauges and find your favorite.
Floral Foam
Floral foam is great for holding the wires (stems) in place for vase arrangements and it’s easy to find at any craft store. To cover your floral foam, you can use things like paper, moss, or not cover it all depending on the arrangement!
Some folks suggest using crack filler foam (like, for house insulation), and although it’s cheaper, there are pitfalls. First, you’ll want to make sure to fill your containers only half full because it will expand A LOT. Second, once you open a can, you need to use it right away, so it’s best if you have a ton of vases to fill. The nozzle tends to be really difficult to clean for multiple applications. Third, this stuff is pretty hard to get out of the vase once it dries. So, there’s that. But sola wood flowers last forever, so that might not be a worry for you!
Hot Glue Gun
You will use the hot glue gun for stemming the flowers as well as using it to glue the flowers onto all sorts of home decor projects you come up with! We use a power Ryobi hot glue gun (really, we love this guy so much, we’ve named him Vikram), but we’re professionals and you might not have that much glueing to do in your life! Any low or high temp glue gun will work just fine for your sola wood crafting projects. High temp glue tends to be more durable than low temp glue, and we haven’t had any of our glue loosen over our many years of hot glueing.
Silicone mat
Now this supply isn't 100% necessary but, it is one of the handiest tools while hot gluing flowers and other various projects. The silicone mat is great at catching the hot glue. Once completely cooled off you can peel the glue right off the mat and throw it away easy-peasy no mess!
Floral Tape
We use this as a way to hold stems together while making a hand-tied bouquet. We also often use zip-ties or floral vinyl tape as great methods for holding stems together!
Ready to take your skills to the next level? Look out for Advanced tools for Crafting with Sola Wood Flowers blog coming soon!
I have been watching a few of your videos day by day and just made my first purchase on the website. Super excited to start crafting for my wedding next year!
Thanks
You guys are the best! I love watching your new diy videos!
I have had such great customer service from you all. I so enjoy your tutorial and have learned so much. I love to set down with my flowers and CrEaTe!
Love all the videos and ideas. The products are amazing too! 😍
Thank you for this thorough information on sola wood flowers. I am new to sola wood flowers and will be using them for my wedding! I was looking for an alternative to real flowers when I came across sola wood! Reading this article gave me a lot of information I need to start creating beautiful arrangements! Thank you again for sharing these tips for us newbies!
Thank you. I love your posts! So much great information
I love that they last forever!
So much good info. Saving this for sure !
Thanks for all the sola flower know how and inspiration!
Thank you for all the helpful information
Reading this and watching all the videos made for a great weekend spent and got me super excited to use these for my wedding!!!
Know I know what species these flowers are made from! Thanks!
Thank you far all the helpful information! I can’t wait for my flowers for my wedding that I ordered to arrive and starting creating beautiful bouquets! Your DYI is very helpful and easy to understand.
I appreciate your descriptions and in every tutorial your personality shines so brightly! Crafting is fun!!
Love these flowers and website. Lots of helpful information
Flowers are absolutely great! I love the quality.
Love watching you!
I was looking to buy a bouquet for my wedding on Etsy… but after finding you guys and all your amazing you tube videos and having a code too good to pass up for a mix of 100 flowers… I’m now going to make it myself!!! Your videos have been my favorite 😁
This is the most informative blog post about Sola flowers I’ve read! I love Oh You’re Lovely flowers, greenery, and supplies!
OMG so much helpful information!! My friend introduced me to the wood flower idea and I absolutely love it. I really hope I’m creative enough to do this hobby. I love all the tips and tricks provided I’m going to have to print it out and highlight what I want to remember!!! Thank you.
Very thorough information. I’ve be working with these flowers for awhile now 4 years? I never knew about the difference in flowers quality from different countries. You all are so helpful and have a fun time working and showing all the things that you can do with these amazing flowers. Thank you 😊
Thank you for always having such easy how it’s, love all the DYI????
So much great information for us newbies. Thank you so much for sharing all of your hard learned knowledge!
This is so informative!! I just got my first sola order in…I’m a little intimidated to work with them…but this post is so helpful!! Thanks a ton!
Your videos are very educational and I’m looking forward to crafting Thank you for all you do
I love how easy and beautiful you make crafting with wood flowers! I just learned about them two Wells ago and I already feel like it’s going to be super easy to do my own wedding flowers!
Thank you for all of the easy tutorials. This will help me create my PERFECT bridal bouquet!
Thank you so much for this information!
Love these flowers!
This was helpful, thank you!
I never thought about using sola flowers for bouquets, but I had seen these for wood signs many times on Facebook. Now there are so many different possibilities that I could not be more excited.
Amazing! I’ve learned so much from everyone on here!
I love your videos, the blog and Facebook page. I’m not a crafty person but you have guided me thru a lot!
I love your videos, the blog and Facebook page. I’m not a crafty person but you have guided me thru a lot!
These flowers are my new addiction…I want to put them on everything! Your tutorials are incredibly helpful.
These flowers are gorgeous. I’ve always loved the look of flowers that are not real but look it. I like fresh flowers but they die and I’m allergic- so thank you for all the incredible ideas and tutorials on how to use this product
I read this when I started my wedding flowers and it is incredibly detailed and helpful!!
Loved learning all the different techniques of dying the difficult flowers.
The Bees-Knees of Sola Providers🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 & the gals are pretty badass Also🥰🥰
The Bees-Knees of Sola Providers🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 & the gals are pretty badass Also🥰🥰
This is great information! I never knew how wood flowers were created.
My daughter introduced me to Sola wood flowers. I liked the idea of supporting families overseas that harvest & make the flowers. Plus all the OYL flowers are perfect! Who can’t love their wood flowers!!
Using a steamer to fluff the flowers is not something I’d considered. I’m going to try this on a few of the ones from the Fall surprise box because I’m using them raw.
Love Sola flowers!
Love watching all you videos and live videos! Very informative and entertaining! Your Thursday night’s are probably the best! Miss seeing you do the Friday crafting with your children!
Love watching all you videos and live videos! Very informative and entertaining! Your Thursday night’s are probably the best! Miss seeing you do the Friday crafting with your children!
Very informative post. Love Sola flowers
I’m obsessed! I am hopeful I will be able to buy everything I need to begin my own creations soon! I want these beauties all over my home!!
I’m obsessed! I am hopeful I will be able to buy everything I need to begin my own creations soon! I want these beauties all over my home!!
Just getting started working with wood flowers and your videos have been so helpful. So many great tips and tricks.
I have only been doing this for about 3 months. This was so helpful! I learned a lot.
I’m excited to get started and have found the tutorials very helpful!
You have opened my world into a whole new kind of crafting! Thank you so much
Theses women are amazing, the flowers are absolutely gorgeous and the tutorials help me with my designs I’m very thankful for this business
So many great tips and tricks! Definitely excited to continue with my sola journey!
Wow! So informative and inspiring! Oh your lovely does not disappoint when it comes to pointing you in the right direction to create beautiful floral pieces!
I love sola wood flowers. Love this blog full of everything you want to know for crafting with sola wood flowers.
I came across your page while looking up sola wood flowers for my future wedding. Your video series on bouquets/etc was SOOO helpful! I love seeing all of the different arrangements you do on YouTube and Facebook Live, and hearing about your story of starting your own business is really inspiring! I’m also from Wisconsin, so I thought it was a fun coincident when I heard that’s where you were based. Looking forward to what’s to come!
I love these flowers and this site!
Great information especially for first-time sola flower crafters!
Love your solar wood flowers and the fun variety you have!
Love your flowers, unique style and tutorials!
Such a helpful blog full of tips. All of your tutorials (and not tutorials 😄) bring me joy!
Thanks for all the great information!!
Enjoyed watching and learning
So excite do have found you. I had a friend tag me. So excited. You are now bookmarked.
I love flowers! You ladies are so awesome!
thanks for all the great tutorials!
Used them to make centerpieces for my daughters baby shower. They were a big hit!
Wow! That’s a lot of information. Great job!
Thank you for this!
I became interested in sola flowers after seeing them in DIY wedding threads on reddit. Everyone on there recommends to check out your videos for help. I have dyed two batches of flowers and I’m still trying to get the paint ratios right but your blog posts have been a major help. Can you make a tutorial on how to make a flower crown?
One of the best sola flower providers! 🥰
Great tips and instructions!
Love these flowers and the tutorials are great!
Love these flowers and the tutorials are great!
Love these flowers so much and am so appreciative of all the helpful tips and suggestions you guys provide!
Thank you for everything that you share with us. It has helped me so much.
Great blog! I love watching your video tutorials. So many priceless tips and tricks to help beginners like me who are learning to work with sola wood flowers. OYL is seriously THE BEST!
Interesting read. Our daughter used these at her wedding.
I’m just starting out and I can’t wait!!
This blog post really helped me in the beginning stages of figuring out if I wanted to make my own bridal bouquets. It’s so informative and with the tutorial videos of how to dye and stem the flowers. Someone (like myself) who really knew nothing about sola wood flowers would take so much away from this blog post. Keep inspiring and crafting! Love seeing all the new things!
Your videos are very helpful. So far, I have only dyed my flowers but looking forward to creating!
Obsessed with Sola flowers and all your tutorials!
Super helpful post!!!
So glad we found your blog, shop and tutorials. We will be making all of the flowers for my daughter’s wedding next year.
This is such an informative blog. I follow your Facebook group and youtube channel closely but hadn’t checked out the blog before. You ladies obviously put so much work, love and passion into this business. Your flowers and helpful attitude are so beautiful and appreciated.
Flowers look so real. My daughters wedding was outside. Everyone kept commenting on how fresh the flowers looked out in the heat and wanted to know where they came from. You could see them sharing that these were wood flowers and you could see people squeezing these all evening!
You ladies are so amazing. I look forward to updates every week and to the videos you share. Thank you so much for guiding me on my sola journey!
Really informative. Love the excitment portrayed in this blog. Your passion for the craft comes through!
Excited to try them!
This is a great blog on all things sola! Thank you ladies for sharing your knowledge!
Thanks for all the helpful information!
Thank you for this. I can’t wait to add the flowers to a sign.
I’m so glad I found this group. These ladies are very creative. It blows my mind every time Stephanie just throws something together and it turns out amazing. The flowers are always such good quality flowers as well. Keep up the hard work!
Love your flowers and your tutorials! And your spirit. 🥰
Love these flowers, love crafting with them and love sharing them.
I made my daughter’s wedding bouquet as my first project & now I am hooked!
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Kathryn Hill
November 04, 2020
I have absolutely loved breaking into a new craft. The Hydrangeas from oh you’re lovely are amazing.