Silk Flower: Jin Tieling
Artist At Work

First, Jin takes wet, white silk and dyes it. To make the flowers look as real as possible, the petals are slightly varied in color and shading. A basic palette of yellow, pink, blue, light purple, and light green paints are used alone or in combination to color the petals. The wet petals are shaped with various tools that Jin makes himself. Jin also makes the glue for the flowers himself. Plain white thread is used to make stamens and ground rice is used to replicate pollen. Individual flowers are combined to form clusters that are typically commissioned by customers.

Jin approaches the creation of his flowers from a very specific aesthetic standpoint; his painstaking process ensures the highly realistic result he so values. His hands-on process allows him to consider the delicacies of a flower on an individual basis, and he seeks to understand each component of the plant. When creating a rose, for instance, he attempts to replicate the flower at its most beautiful moment, capturing the energy of the rose in bloom. By the time the process is completed, each of his flowers is ideally flawless.