UPDATED! How I Dry Flowers in Silica Gel! Taking a FLORAL ARRANGEMENT & Drying it in SILICA GEL! 

After seeing your first drying video, I started drying flowers for resin too. A few things I learned... 1. Keep notes on what does and doesn’t dry well and how long each kind took. Magnolias DO NOT dry well (they turn rust colored). Sunflowers DO dry beautifully. Poinsettias dry beautifully and work very well in resin but I did recolor them (see note 4). Experiment with different flowers. Some do very well and easy and others are terrible. 2. Dry corresponding leaves for each flower with the flower so that you have correct matching foliage. 3. For particularly delicate or very deep pocket blooms (like daffodils), after they’re dried... treat them with UV resin along petal backs, in deep pockets, or to hold sections together. Do this carefully and in small layers so as not to burn them. But this is a great way to prep to minimize bubbles and to keep flowers from falling apart in storage. I’ve been doing this for almost a year and it’s been very successful. 4. If flowers fade out a lot or lose color, some can be “painted” with alcohol ink to recolor or change the color. Let this dry thoroughly or the ink will bleed in the resin. But if completely dry, they do well recolored.

If you group flowers by similar types (ones that should finish around the same time) it might work out if you lay down tulle under the flowers for a gentle way to remove the flowers from the gel. Lay a thin layer of silica, then tulle, the another layer of silica, then flowers, then finish off like normal. The just pull up on the tulle and the silica should fall through the tulle like a sift and pull out the flowers. I’m always afraid of crushing the flowers when I fish around for flowers using my hands.

Hey here is a pro florist tip. When you want to fluff a rose or tulip or lily anything that is a tight bloom cup your hands loosely around the bloom and blow into the top of it like a balloon. When you pull on them you can bruise the petals and they will brown faster. You have to blow fairly hard and fast and it will loosen the grip of the petals.

Cut flower farming trick; hold the rose by the stem between your palms, upside down and spin it back and forth (rub your palms together) like you would a when you're trying to start a fire with a stick and the tighter roses open up more

a cat littler pooper scooper would be great for lifting flowers out of the gel ....have a great day !! 😊💙

Shes my new obsession. So talented, funny, and beautiful.

I love this! Thank-you... need to dry and preserve my daughter's wedding bouquet. The yellow rose is my fave! I have always loved that color yellow and roses. You look gorgeous, thanks again!

You’re so fun! Thank you for showing us this process.

I sometimes use a blush makeup brush on silica dried flowers, it's nice and soft and clears the silica off of fluffy(?) bits.

I have never seen such a gorgeous bouquet. The dried results are amazing. You would never know they were dry.

If you dry things that need to come out at the same time if you gently pour the cilia sand out till the flower I exposed then get the sand out of the flower you have less breakage then continue to the next flower. I have even done flowers that were more fragile than the parrot tulip with no breaking. It's a tip I picked up from someone who loved to dry orchids and so far works every time.

Love the yellow rose!!! Love your videos!!! Thank you for sharing with us!!!

Posted right on the start of my lunch.... What a great day!!!! 🥺😭😍🥰

I absolutely adore the yellow Cubana rose and the violet cherry Ranunculus. They are my favorites! Thank you for doing this. I've been wanting to try this, but I was unsure how to do it. Great video, and I think your hair looked great!

I enjoy all of your videos, but ..... I love your flower videos the best. Your awe of flowers is contagious through your videos!

Thank you and I literally can feel the love you have of flowers as I watch and learn. I, too, ADORE them. They are so special! You are doing great work! Thank you

Thank you for doing an update on your drying process. I’ve been following you and learning so much on my resin journey over the last 18 months. I have even been doing memorial flowers for friends recently thanks to the knowledge I have gained from you. I’ve tagged you on a couple of pieces on my TikTok. Thank you for making it so easy to understand. You are my go to resource when newbies ask for guidance. Sending hugs from the UK 🇬🇧 💕💕

This is my new hobby! I’m so happy I found you ❤️

Hi Heather! I found your channel recently and I've been binging your videos! Which made me wonder something: you've mentioned different types of resin and I'm wondering what do the different types do, what makes it that you use a certain type for a specific project? Could you maybe do a video about it? :)

I just bought A bag of silica 2 days ago.I had no idea you were gonna put this video up, but we are on the same page girl! And how can you not love carnations? They are my favorite flower, everyone likes roses and others and I love carnations! Thank you so much I cannot wait to see the second half of this video.Have a great day Heather!!!

I love how your all about your creativitiy!....and then you had a moment like me and your like the flowers can't touch in the gel. They might cause terrible things to happen 😂and cut to nuclear scene...you make my soul giggle your the best!

Thank you so much for sharing your creative & informative video! You flowed in perfect pace that is so easy to follow. I've never heard of this method until I found your video when searching how to preserve flowers from a special friend's memorial of her Mom that passed away. Now I can help her daughter make a beautiful keepsake from the flowers. Your shadowbox creations are beautiful & such a wonderful idea. Thank you so much & many blessings to you🙏🏻⚘💐🌻🌷🌺

The Yellow Rose is my fave because it stayed together and looks still alive. How many times can you reuse the gel before you have to change it? Love this Heather and thanks for sharing! XOXO

Ha ha, love your videos. You make me smile, particularly love the closing singing voice and outtakes and the bit before that, okay I love everything!!!

Thank you for this. I’m new to the resin, drying out flower journey. I am so interested in this whole process. Thank you for explaining how this works. The yellow Cubana rose was the best and even after it was dried still looked full of color.🌼🌷. Excited to see your next video. Thank you for sharing😊

I am so glad I found this! I wanted to learn how to do this to save all the flowers my daughter brings me

When I did my sister's wedding flowers and her roses weren't open enough I read somewhere to go around clockwise with the petals from the outside towards the center. It totally worked!

Love the hair and freckles. I liked the yellow rose best, too. It was beautiful. I like the idea of using the blush makeup brush like Molly Miller said, too.

It’s my favorite piece too!!!! I’m imagining making one with pine and berries for winter!!

Wow that yellow rose is just gorgeous thank you ! Very informative

I can't help loving the yellow flower. Its simply gorgeous

who's a fan of Artsy becusae if you whash Artsy you now what she make a fiower

What you could do instead of scooping them out or using a spatula is put a mesh grate in the bottom with handles on the sides and just lift the flowers up all at once.

Is it possible to encase dead flowers in resin? I’ve kept absolutely every flower I’ve ever gotten and I would love to arrange them into a resin piece!

Love your videos, I was wondering if you can use silica gel over and over again.

You have inspired me! I got yellow roses for my birthday and I will try this for the first time!

That yellow rose though! It’s so beautiful

Hi! I LOVE your work I have recently started commissioned pieces and I have gotten a ton of dusty pink and white roses but when I dry them in silica the colors always change and get dingy. Do you ever paint your dried flowers ? Or is there something I can do to help the color?

I dried kwanzan cherry blossoms last year and it worked out pretty well. Unfortunately I messed up this year and have to wait until next year to get more cherry blossoms.

SO PUMPED YOURE DOING THIS🙌🏻 love how we both kind of modified our methods to work best. Hand scoops are the only option for me. Oh can’t forget the toss 🤣

Yay! Glad to see the updated vid has PPE.

I am stunned! I will definitely be doing this! New subscriber :]

Thank you so much for all your videos! Your page has helped me in so many ways! New to resin and I’ve learned so much from you and your extra gene is so relatable! Been binging all your videos haha

Yay! You saved me having to do this myself! Love it.

Thank you for sharing this I appreciate it. I’m just getting into this adventure lol. I loved it 😊

Can you do a video on your favorite flowers to work with along with your not so fav ones and why

I like using either a slotted spoon or a kitchen tool called a spider to remove the dried flowers from the silica gel it makes it easier and keeps them from breaking down

Thank you for such amazing information! I'm preserving flowers from my grandma's funeral and hoping to make resin paperweights for my family!

What a gorgeous bouquet! Subscribing because I loved this video and can't wait to try this with the flowers my mom sent me for Valentine's Day! I wonder if she would murderize me if I went ahead and pulled them apart and started drying them now, since I just got them today? 🤣 I actually want to make her a shadow box with them and then put a nice quote on the glass to gift them back to her for Mother's Day. She LOVVVVES flowers! Edit: OOOOOH! What in the world is that rose @6:45?!?! It's like a triple rose in one! WOW!

Yellow roses are my favorite!!

I AM a yellow flower person. That rose was beautiful! But daffodils are my absolute favorite 😍 plus they always mean spring to me

Absolutely love your silliness.

I love watching these videos. So much fun and love her vibe..... and hair x

Fantastic video so helpful can’t wait for the next stage. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👍

I've been drying some of my flowers lately and came across a tip that I want to try-put a piece of tulle or net fabric under the silica gel, when the flowers are dry pull up the fabric and the flowers come out and leave the gel in the container. Now I just have to get some netting...

I love this! Fantastic video, and OMG that yellow rose!!!

Thank you, Heather! ❤

Loved th beautiful Cubana yellow rose.

Would love yo see you doing a project with the Protea. I'm from South Africa an it's our national flower.

Love your makeup and your flowers 💐

Can't wait for the next video Artsy!!

Hi, enjoyed the video. The yellow tulip came out beautiful. I dried several hydrangeas, true, they do take up a lot of space, and a lot of gel crystals , 5 bags! They came out beautifully! Waiting to see your second video. ❤

I absolutely in love with the yellow rose ❤❤❤ They are my favorite color of roses 🌹 Thanks for teaching us how to use silica gel!!! What are your thoughts on two layers??

Once they are dried what is the best way to store before you use them

That yellow rose is beautiful

Can you over dry your flowers? If I keep my wedding flowers in silica gel for a week while on vacay will it ruin them? Thanks !

Hi again Heather! We all love you and your creativity!! Have you found that sometimes you can leave a flower in Silica gel too long? Thanks, Deb

beautiful video. I've been considering going to my local florist for just such a bouquet and with this in mind. I love that you say the names of the flowers, so we can ask for those in particular.I'm thinking a large, flat cat box scooper would work well to scoop out the flowers...or perhaps one of those fryer scoops. I'd love it if you could show also how you recharge (dry) your silica gel, so we can re-use what we have too. Thanks!

I used a different silica gel. They were more of beads than sand. They left little dents in the flowers. I'm very new to resin, but I discovered I love making jewelry and putting flowers in resin. I really want to try the brand of silica gel that you used.

The Protea because it is such a big flower it takes up to 3 months to dry in the silica gel. So you will have to wait long to do anything if you want to use the Protea

The tulips and the beautiful yellow rose

I just picked up some silica gel, an airtight container & a bouquet of flowers to dry so had to rewatch this video.

This is awesome. Checking out part two. This answered so many questions I had. Yes I loved the yellow rose the best. I am not sure if you showed the little blue flowers because I was excited to see how they truly dried. But will be looking for them in the next video. Thanks again for doing this.

I just dried a couple king proteas upside down in a dark, warm attic and they turned out beautiful! Definitely muted, but I think the colors turned to som beautiful pastels. I agree it would be difficult to put in silica gel due to their size and I worry the gel would get stuck inside the flower

I'm not a florist but I like to make silk flower arrangements its fun to design them

I tried this with a rose and it came out looking like something form the nightmare before Christmas and i only left it in for 2days. I definitely think it maters where you buy your flowers and how healthy they are. The out come is different.

Absolutely love it.

Great video. You look great. Thank you for sharing this. I am learning so much from you.

Enjoying your tutorials thank you - A question please: I am wondering why the 'lollipops' you placed into resin was ok (did not need to be dried or laminated etc) when flowers need to be dry?? I would have thought the confectionary would be holding moisture?? Many thanks if you have time to answer :-)

I’m so jealous of that yellow rose lol

So helpful!! Thank you so much!

Really cool - thanks for sharing!

I love the yellow and like you do

super helpful !!!! Thank you 👍👍👍

Nice thumbnail. Lol! 🥰🥰

I have dried a protea in silica gel it did very well

Hello! Question. Do I need to dry eucalyptus?

I just found your channel, I have fallen in love with your vibe and everything. I have I question, are those your natural eyelashes? And how do you get that result? And what do you use?. Sorry 😅there were 3 questions 😅

Great information! Thank you. Gorgeous flowers! Wow! 😂🤣Bloopers! Lol!

can Artsy make a Rinbow Flower glob

Excited to see how this process works out 😂

My favorites were the bunny tails and the parrot tulip. This is really neat; so am I the only one who thinks silica gel looks like cat litter? Could one use cat litter (before the cats use it of course)? And do you have to wear goggles and mask like that, or would a covid face mask and swimming goggles work? Just curious because I mean I sift cat litter all the time and without a mask for years 🤔

Great video Heather! The yellow flower was BEAUTIFUL! I can't wait to see what you do with them all!

very interesting!! can't wait for part 2

Thank you so much !

LOVE this!

Hi I put red roses in silica gel 4days, when I take out the flowers, all dried, but all sadly in grey color. Is there anything i have done wrong? is there anything I can do to revive the color? thanks

can you reuse the resin, and if you can, how many times can you reuse the silica gel?

I lost the color of my red roses while drying.. what did I do wrong. Use the gel and waited 3 days.

My flowers always change color in the silica gel how can I prevent that