Tiffanie Turner, a San Francisco based artist, is best known for her ability to craft incredibly realistic flowers out of paper. She cuts petals out of delicate Italian crepe paper and sews them together to resemble the creases and folds of flowers. When photographed, it’s nearly impossible to tell these fake flowers apart from real ones!

The faux florals that Turner creates vary in dimensions, right from palm-sized to nearly three ft. wide. Depending on the size, each flower can take anywhere between 35 to 80 hours to complete. Most of her pieces mimic healthy flowers, but at times she experiments with the wilted look as well.

A mother-of-two, Turner is also a licensed architect and a burlesque dancer. She revealed that her lifelong obsession with botanicals eventually gave rise to her unique art form. “My work in paper stems from my background as an architect, particularly my interest in how things are made and the use of repetitive elements, along with my lifelong obsession with flowers and botanical drawings,” she said.

“The exploration of scale plays heavily into everything I do, and the organised chaos and rhythms in nature make the heads of flowers an excellent case study for me.”

Turner is also a teacher; she regularly hosts workshops across the US, helping people to create their own floral masterpieces. She blogs about her experiences with flower making, and she sells paper flower headpieces and acorn ornaments through her Etsy shop.

Photos: Tiffanie Turner/Papel SF

Sources: My Modern Met, All Things Paper