How I made Black Roses for Valentines Day with Flat Roofing Tar

[Arob]

On Monday this week I made these stellar Black Rose Valentines with petroleum bitumen, aka roofing tar.




How I made Black Roses with Roofing Tar



First I bought a dozen red roses at the local flower shop.



Then on a cold January morning, I took the wilting flowers to a ToughRoof flat roofing job where I met Dave who was busy feeding two industrial size mobile tar pot trailers full with a 1000 lbs of liquid bitumen, some of which I can still smell on my jacket.



The propane heated boilers are set to almost 500 degrees and the black liquid steams in the cold air.

The rose petals curl up and the flower dries even faster in the fumes just seconds before the ‘tar’ dip.

The red rose bubbles and sizzles as the molten bitumen mummifies the object into a solid black masterpiece.


Petroleum dipped roses are beautiful to behold and solid , but i wouldnt put them in the window on a hot summer day.


If you want to give someone special in your life a black rose for Valentines Day just let me know on Twitter @Roberrific.

[carpetcleaning]

Hmm... not a bad idea...but black???...if your beloved is some gothic lady ok,but if not...

[Shwa Girl]

interesting OP
the roses are preserved for a long time
just wondering, do you wear a mask when you work with hot tar?
just thinking about your lungs and such

[Arob]

Good question Shwa Girl . I dont work with hot tar. I was just visiting.. But I reckon they dont and they should wear masks. @carpetcleaning I was thinking of doing a piece on what black roses mean in the language of flowers.

Another picture. They are so shiny they reflect everything 360 degrees. They look wet but they are hard as ice.


another,

[nicolthepickle]

They are pretty neat. I like that they're shiny.

[Arob]

I have to show you this, Roses Dipped in Waterproofing Compound !

Bill Korenowsky of Royal Waterproofing in Toronto made these .. and although they'll live forever, they're pretty gooey looking, even though they're hard as rocks now.

I wrote it up on Fuel Ghoul - Waterproofing Roses for Valentine's Day


Next is roses preserved in ... ?

[Lynn49]

Neat! What about that coloured fluorescent plasticky stuff they dip tool handles in to keep them from slipping out of workers' hands?