Tips for Designing Faster and Easier with Oasis Adhesives

Create cleaner, lighter, and more efficient floral designs using the right adhesive products and techniques. Sharon McGukin offers tips for using OASIS Floral Adhesive, UGLU, and Floralock products to speed production, reduce bulky wiring, build secure professional designs and on-trend wearable florals. From glue application tips to bouquet-locking techniques, discover practical, time-saving methods every florist can use to design faster and smarter.

How we Bloom podcast is an oasis of flower ideas. Host Sharon McGukin of  Smithers-Oasis North America interviews floral guests who dare to do things differently. We listen, learn, explore new opportunities and that's how we bloom!

Transcript

Sharon McGukin 0:06

Welcome to How We Bloom, an oasis of flower ideas. I'm your host, Sharon McGukin, AIFD, AAF, PFCI, and I believe that every great success story starts with one simple idea. That's why we interview those who dare to do things differently, inspiring people who plant seeds, grow ideas, and bloom to their full potential. In this podcast, we listen, learn, explore new opportunities, and that's how we bloom. Today, we're going to talk about designing faster and easier with Oasis adhesives. Time is money for florists, designing trendy, wearable flower fashions especially. Think floral couture, floral jewelry, flower headpiece designs, and personal flowers for special events. Labor is a major expense for a flower shop. Business-savvy florists are constantly looking for faster and easier ways to work smarter, not harder. One effective shortcut is gluing flowers instead of wiring and taping them. Using Oasis specially formulated floral adhesive, often called cold glue, lets you speed up production, reduce bulk in mechanics, create lighter, more wearable, unwired floral designs. There's different types of adhesives that can serve different purposes with your designs. Floral adhesive allows you to efficiently create profitable lightweight designs like corsages, boutonnieres, wristlets, floral bracelets, and floral jewelry for weddings, prom, homecoming, and more. It's fast-drying, waterproof, and safe for fresh flowers, and it doesn't brown the petals. For easier control of the glue flow, slightly flatten the tube nozzle to an oval shape using the flat side of needle-nose or jewelry pliers. Make gluing your go-to mechanic with these fast and easy techniques. Dipping the end of a flower stem into a small puddle of adhesive or dripping the adhesive from its tube directly onto the flower stem- When dipping the flower stem into glue, work with small glue puddles because glue dries quickly. Add fresh glue when it thickens to help rehydrate the dried edges of the glue puddle. Place a small dab of the cold adhesive onto a small square of plastic. Add a drop of adhesive where the flower will sit. Dip the end of the flower into the wet adhesive. Insert it into the design and hold for a few seconds until the glue becomes tacky. Allow glue to fully dry before placing the design in the cooler. Hydrated glue cannot dehydrate in the moist environment and will not set properly. When adding glue to the flower stem, remember that glue adheres to glue, so apply the adhesive to both surfaces, the flower and the place where it will sit. Position the flower stem and hold a few seconds till the glue is tacky enough to hold into place. Now, here are some tips for keeping your glue tubes working. Clean the nozzle before replacing the cap after use. To prevent the cap from sticking, apply petroleum jelly, lotion, cooking oil, or spray Pam onto the tip and the cap. Rub your hands with oil-based product to prevent sticking and make cleanup easier. When finished, wash your hands with mildly hot water to help remove the glue. Store used tubes with caps securely closed, standing upright with the tip pointing down into a glass or small vase, making the tubes easier to find on a busy work table. The small caps are easy to misplace, so save used caps to replace lost ones. Seal tubes temporarily by inserting a corsage pin into the nozzle or wrapping it in plastic if you have lost your cap. When should you not use floral adhesive? When designing in foam that is already wet, when placing materials on a heavy design framework, on stems that exude excessive sap or moisture, like spring bulb flowers, in extreme hot or cold environments, with very fragile blooms or petals that tear easy In designs that may be exposed to water, when working with fresh food surfaces. Oasis floral adhesive is available in thirty-nine-gram tubes or an eight-ounce can with a squeeze bottle application. When you need a tape-like adhesive strength, use UGlu. UGlu is a dry adhesive that grips instantly and works like super strong tape. UGlu comes in strips, rolls, or dashes. Use UGlu for attaching boutonniere backs to lapels, securing materials into mechanics or form. Applying adhesive to your base surface, peel off the paper liner and press firmly, then peel away the top layer of paper if you're adding a material onto the UGlu from the top. A well-placed three-inch strip can hold up to two pounds when properly bonded. Cut UGlu with serrated scissors. Coat the blades with oil or dip in water before cutting to prevent sticking. Here are some bonding basics. Room temperature matters. Neither floral adhesive nor UGlu bonds well to hot, cold, or damp surfaces. After removing flowers from the cooler, let them warm briefly at room temperature. Remind your customers to avoid putting flowers into hot cars or freezers. Extreme temps weaken adhesive grip and can make your flowers wilt. Prep surfaces for a secure hold. Adhesives struggle to hold when they're placed on dusty, oily, or slick surfaces. Clean surfaces before bonding. Remove oils from your skin with rubbing alcohol if UGlu will be applied. Lightly rough up smooth or slick surfaces for a tighter adhesive grip. Mix and match your mechanics. Prefer wiring and taping techniques? Keep using them. But also experiment with glued accents for speed, lighter weight, and design flexibility. Try using a mix of both. Wire and tape the basic structure, and then glue your accent flowers into place. Choose 24-gauge wire for flexibility and design versatility if you're using wire in your structure. De-stress your wedding bouquets with Floralock. No one wants to watch things fall apart for a bride on her wedding day. Wedding florists know that bouquets can experience accidental abuse, being dropped, hugged, tossed, or bumped. It can damage the floral foam base. Floralock spray locks stems into the foam permanently. It absorbs into the foam, hardens the outer surfaces, and prevents stems from loosening or falling out. How do you use Oasis Floralock? Shake the small can well. Insert the red tube, that's taped to the side of the can, firmly into the nozzle. Place the tube between flowers into the outer edge of the foam. Spray in short bursts so that the foam absorbs slowly. Apply in multiple areas for full support. Avoid oversaturating to prevent leak back. Wash the tube with hot, soapy water so it doesn't clog. Tape the red tube back to the can for storage. Be sure you're completely finished with your design before applying Floralock. Once it dries, you won't be able to add or remove stems. If you'd like a stem removed, you can cut off the stem right at the top of the foam. Which adhesive works best? That depends on the purpose of your design, the size of the design, weight of materials, expected handling and wear, and designed mechanic strength. Experiment with floral adhesives, dip or drip, U-Glu, Floralock, or try a mix of these attachment techniques. Which adhesive works best for your design work? It depends on the needs and use of each design. Experiment with all three types of gluing products that you can purchase from your local supplier or order from oasisfloralproducts.com and choose the option that works best for your creative designs. Then let us know which gluing technique is your favorite. Smithers Oasis North America, and I want to thank you for joining us today. If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend and be sure to hit subscribe. You don't want to miss the inspired solutions our upcoming guests will share with you for your personal or business growth If you have topics you want to hear, please message me. We'd love to hear from you. Until next time, I'm Sharon McGukin, reminding you that like the unfurling petals of a flower, we grow by changing form, soaking inspiration in like raindrops, absorbing energy from others like warmth from the sun. This opens us up to new ideas, and that's how we bloom.