More on Making the Roses for the Carousel Animals

 I was away last week and did not have a chance to make a post before I left.  After a year filled with ice in the winter, wildfire smoke in the spring, extreme heat and severe thunderstorms with flash floods during the summer, we finally had a stretch of nice autumn weather.  So, we decided on the spur of the moment, to drop everything and head for the mountains.  The leaves are already starting to turn up there.  It was nice to get away for a few days.  

When we returned, I started working on the miniature roses again.  All of the roses have been shaped and painted with glue to stiffen them.  They are quite hard now and hold their shape.  (If you want the information on how these miniature roses were made, scroll back to the last few posts.)  It is hard to see the rose detail in this picture because this picture shows them actual size rather as compared to last week's photos which were taken with the roses held under a magnifying glass.

Not all of the roses ended up looking like roses, some looked like daffodils and a few like camellias.  For this project, that is okay as I am not married to the idea that the flowers all have to be roses.  If you absolutely need roses, consider making extras, and choosing the best ones.    

When making the first few roses, I was dipping the roses in white glue.  Ultimately, I decided that the glue was too thick and as the excess did not shake off easily, they needed to be wiped off.  I ended up using an old tiny detail brush to paint the glue on instead.  It seemed to work much better.  

You might notice that the stems seem a little elongated.  I needed that extra stem space to hold the rose with tweezers while I was working on them.  The stem will also be used in this case to help attach the roses to the carousel animals.  I will be making some more paper clay to make ribbons for the animals' decorations, and the roses will be embedded into the clay with a little more glue to keep them in place. In other applications, the stems could either be trimmed or used to mount the flowers to stems. My paper clay recipe is only a few posts back if anyone is interested in learning more on how I made my homemade paper clay.

I have not been able to accomplish much this week other than giving the roses their coats of glue.  I ran out of glue.  I have been using Elmer's Multipurpose Glue-All for years.  I use so much of it that I generally purchase it by the gallon.  I went to my local hardware store to pick up some more.  The store was no longer carrying it.  I looked at the other big box hardware store, and they did not have it either.  I ended up having to order it online.  It should be here Wednesday.  The hardware stores had other types of comparably priced white glue, but rather than saying safe and non-toxic as Elmer's does, they only said ASTM (some number I don't remember) compliant and low VOCs.  Not what I wanted.  

I wondered what was going on with this.  I had never had any trouble finding it before, so I asked ChatGPT what was going on.  The good news is that it is still available, it has not been discontinued.  The problem is that this product is being increasing treated as a specialty product.  It is too strong for school projects and not strong enough to be put with the epoxies and construction adhesives.  It is considered a mid-tier product and is not often stocked in stores anymore, especially not in larger sizes due to shelf space issues.  Even if craft stores carry it, they may only be carrying smaller sizes.  They used to carry larger sizes, because a kid's craft project called Slime needed larger sizes of the glue to make it.  Apparently that craft project has fallen out of favor.  

 So, there you have it, the information on why this product is so hard to find. Your best bet to find it is online.  If you do look for it online, shop for prices.  They varied widely with some sellers charging almost double what other sellers were charging.  This may be because large sellers have more purchasing power than smaller businesses.  I don't know the true answer to that, but be forewarned that the price varies widely.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next post.  I hope to have at least some of the animals decorated with ribbons and flowers.