How a Pipe-Cleaner Flower Is Actually Made

The material

A chenille stem is a length of wire with fibre spun around it. The wire is what makes the whole craft possible: it holds any curve you put into it permanently, which means a petal bent into shape stays that shape without glue, heat or setting time.

We buy them in around forty colours. The fibre takes dye in a way that reads as matte and slightly velvety rather than plastic, which is why the finished flowers photograph much better than people expect.

Shaping a single bloom

• Coil — the stem is wound into a tight spiral to form the petal's body.
• Pinch — the coil is flattened and pinched at one end to give the petal its point. This step decides whether it reads as a lily, a tulip or a daisy.
• Curve — each petal is bent backwards along its length. This is the step that separates a flower from a shape, and it is entirely by eye.
• Bind — petals are gathered around a centre and bound onto a stem wire.
• Leaf — leaves are made the same way in green and bound lower down.

A simple daisy is about eight minutes. A layered lily is closer to twenty-five. A bouquet of thirty blooms is most of a day once wrapping is counted.

Why no two are identical

Because the curve of every petal is judged by hand, no two flowers come out exactly alike, and no two bouquets are identical to their photograph. The colours will be the colours you chose and the arrangement will be the arrangement you saw — but a petal will sit differently here and there.

We treat that as the point rather than a defect, and we would rather say so plainly than have it be a surprise when the box is opened.

Made to order, not from stock

We hold no finished inventory. When an order arrives someone sits down and makes it, which is why lead times are one to five days and why we can change the colours without charging extra. It is slower than a shelf. It is also the only reason the personalisation is free.