How do I make fabric roses?

Would dunking fabric in glue make the fabric harden? Pleease help!?

• I originally wanted to use plaster of paris and dip fabric in it, but could I make a similar effect with glue? Do I have to mix glue with something to make the glue thicker before dunking the fabric? Thank you very much.

• Answer:

  It will make the fabric hold a form, but it is the glue that is hardening, not the fabric, so it depends on how stiff the glue is when set (white and yellow wood glues are somewhat flexible.) Plaster is much thicker. A problem with both is that they are not very strong (unless the fabric is pretty thick in the first place, so there has to be supports ready to hold the fabric and those must be coated with spray fat or wax to keep from gluing the fabric to the support. Latex paint will also work and be thinner Theater people have used for a long, long time a mixture of water, glue size, and pigment to prepare flats where muslin cloth is stapled tightly to a braced wood frame. When the cloth is painted with the mixture it shrinks and hardens to make a paintable surface for scenery. Used this way, the fine weave of the cloth is buried and smooth. And of course artists canvas is treated the same way using gesso.