Artificial Flowers

Artificial flower making began in Thailand during the reign of King Chulalongkorn. Foreign instructions were brought in by order of the queen to teach the art at Rachinee School. At that time, only foreign flowers were made. The idea caught on and Thai flowers began to appear. The craft has since been actively promoted and has developed gradually from a home to a factory industry. In 1973, the Board of Investment decided to enlist it among those entitled to receive government support, and this has resulted in considerable expansion in the art.

Divided according to the raw material used for production, artificial flowers fall into 6 group as follows :

1. Plastic flowers
2. Polyester flowers
3. Fabric flowers
4. Mulberry paper flowers
5. Natural fibre flowers
6. Flowers made from miscellaneous materials

Among these, the first two are machine made and their rather simple patterns require no special skill. The rest, however, are handmade, and are more complex as craftsmen usually want them either to resemble nature as much as possible or to meet their own creative imagination. There are as a result, more valuable.

Dried Flowers

As stated earlier, these are dried products of nature. They have been gaining more and more popularity during recent years alongside artificial ones
Sometimes they are mixed with artificial flowers, especially those made from mulberry and plant fibres, for variation. This combination is popular in foreign markets
The most active producer of dried flowers is the Royal Project in the north, although some are produced in Bangkok and its environs.