About the Artist

Stephen began creating paper flowers in early 2017. After desperately trying to find real and artificial Juliet Roses for the celebration of the birth of his second daughter, he stumbled upon a paper flower version of the rose. After making a small bouquet of roses, he began to discover the joy that came from making these intricate flowers. 

In May of 2017, Indiana Paper Company (formerly The Paper Peony) was started. Offering a variety of custom orders, Indiana Paper Company is steadily growing to provide people in the Indianapolis area and around the country with handmade paper flowers.

In addition to crafting paper flowers, Stephen is a stay-at-home dad of three, teaches piano lessons, shoots photography on the side, and co-owns a local theatre company. 

The Art Behind Paper Flowers

A lot goes into creating botanically realistic paper flowers. It starts with the paper—usually a double-sided German crepe paper. Sometimes the color of the paper is perfect, while other situations call for custom colors. Hand-painting paper with alcohol inks or soft pastels are just a few ways we can get the color just right.

After the paper is ready, each petal for every flower is hand-cut. Some flowers contain only a few petals, like wild roses or daffodils, while others contain over 100 or 200 petals (peonies and hydrangeas respectively).

Once the petals are cut, each petal is cupped, stretched, curled, or manipulated in some way to take the paper from a flat medium, to a three-dimensional form. Some petals are smooth and round, like rose petals, while others have notches and curves, like peonies.

Next, the petals are ready to be glued to the floral stem to begin creating the flower. Each petal is strategically placed to emulate a real flower. Once the petals are placed, the flower is then finished off with sepals, a calyx, etc. and a pair or set of leaves depending on the bloom.

The entire process, from start to finish, can take anywhere from 20 minutes, to more than 5 hours per bloom. Making paper flowers is a true art form. And hopefully, through this detailed process, I am able to produce a flower you can cherish for many years to come.