My Creative Workbook

Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman

Bent

... been

bent and broken,

but

I hope

into

a

better shape.

Quote by Charles Dickens (Great Expectations)

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Tutorials
Sun baked Sweetpea vine wreath
26 August 2015
Sun baked Sweetpea vine wreath

A perfect way to use a Lathyrus vine after all it flowered
Skeleton Hydrangeas
26 August 2015
Skeleton Hydrangeas

Make skeleton petals from hydrangeas to create blossoms
Skeleton Hydrangea Petal Blossoms
26 August 2015
Skeleton Hydrangea Petal Blossoms

Use the skeleton petals of hydrangeas to create blossoms
Weaving a twig wreath
1 November 2011
Weaving a twig wreath

For my design I wanted the wreath to look wind blown so I added a few loosely woven twigs into the weave. I also wanted to emphasize the autumn colours so I added a twirling copper wire into the weave
Skeleton Leaves
22 September 2012
Skeleton Leaves

Remove the pulp from leaves so that only the vain framework remain
Skeletonize Physalis Pods
3 September 2014
Skeletonize Physalis Pods

Remove the pulp from the papery pod (sepal) covering the little berry of Chinese lantern plant so that only the vain framework remain
Skeleton leaf bowl
12 November 2014
Skeleton leaf bowl

Stiffen some skeletonize leaves into a lacy fine floral bowl
Skeleton Leaf Flameless Candle Cocoon
17 April 2013
Skeleton Leaf Flameless Candle Cocoon

Cover a balloon with skeleton leaves to create a cocoon
Paper flowers
28 February 2011
Paper flowers

You can use any type of paper to make flowers. I use tissue paper, Crêpe paper, cardboard, newsprint and coffee filters (new and used) to make sweet peas, carnations, paper roses, blossoms, lilies, poppies and orchids.
Manipulating stems: Snapping at an angle, Bending, Spiraling, Curling and Straightening
19 February 2013
Manipulating stems: Snapping at an angle, Bending, Spiraling, Curling and Straightening

Most stems, twigs and even sturdier branches can be bend into shapes. It takes practice and more than a bit of patience. The main idea is to slowly manipulate the branch without breaking it.
Hang a wreath on a door without knocking nails into the door face
7 December 2011
Hang a wreath on a door without knocking nails into the door face

I use two methods (or a combination of both) to attach a wreath to a door.
Controlled chaos straw and dried foliage armature
18 September 2024
Controlled chaos straw and dried foliage armature

Craft a straw covered wire grid to slip over display containers for a foam free floral display that is light and airy... just like it grown in the field.
Suspend delicate stemmed orchids in a Willow Infinity Weave Flower Frog
24 January 2024
Suspend delicate stemmed orchids in a Willow Infinity Weave Flower Frog

Create a little grid that fits the stems exactly to position them above and below water in a large container.
Keep your fresh plant material hydrated... and your dried plant material from falling into the water with a dried vine armature
3 October 2023
Keep your fresh plant material hydrated... and your dried plant material from falling into the water with a dried vine armature

Use dried floral details to keep fresh floral details suspended in water and fresh floral details to keep dried floral details from falling into the water… easy!
A fluffy faded leaf "tail" to display delicate autumn treasures
5 October 2022
A fluffy faded leaf "tail" to display delicate autumn treasures

Threading leaves to craft a long garland armature for an autumn display
Willow disk frog
7 September 2022
Willow disk frog

Dried willow shaped to create a disk to keep your floral details in place in a vase with water.
Eucalyptus leaf and twig blossoms in a radiating puddle of stems
8 June 2022
Eucalyptus leaf and twig blossoms in a radiating puddle of stems

Just look at that puddle! This design is all about the fresh eucalyptus... but in a cooling down for summer kind of way.
Tendril Tangle Grid
4 May 2022
Tendril Tangle Grid

Let tendrils do what they naturally do to help keep your flowers in place.
Copper Pepper Berry Wreath
3 November 2021
Copper Pepper Berry Wreath

Wire pepper berries to a wreath
Spring breeze tangled ribbon wreath
7 April 2021
Spring breeze tangled ribbon wreath

Using branches pruned from a fruit tree... with a few dried flowers and just a few orchids to make a fresh Spring design.
Floral wreath ring stem armature for a cute pumpkin patch in a stem vase design
7 October 2020
Floral wreath ring stem armature for a cute pumpkin patch in a stem vase design

Use a wreath to keep flower and a heavy little ghost pumpkin in place in a small vase.
Building up a wreath panel
24 June 2020
Building up a wreath panel

Connect six wreaths to build up a hanging panel to display your flowers on.
Finally! I found a perfect way to perfectly preserve a perfect passion fruit flower.
25 March 2020
Finally! I found a perfect way to perfectly preserve a perfect passion fruit flower.

Yay everyone! I found the absolute best way to preserve passion fruit flowers. Here it is: how to dry flowers using Silica Gel.
Impossibly delicate Dancing Lady orchid wreath
11 March 2020
Impossibly delicate Dancing Lady orchid wreath

Weave a wreath around a cardboard circle to create an almost lace effect... perfect to capture those first signs of Spring!
Glue a grapevine armature shaped like the petals of an open rose
15 May 2019
Glue a grapevine armature shaped like the petals of an open rose

Cut a wreath into sections to glue back together into a beautiful rose petal shape
Crescent willow moon
21 November 2018
Crescent willow moon

Craft a crescent shaped willow armature
Off-center hole-wreath armature
12 September 2018
Off-center hole-wreath armature

Craft a slightly off center wreath from dried vines and grasses for Phalaenopsis orchids.
Bend Wired Equisetum into a Hollow Wreath
7 February 2018
Bend Wired Equisetum into a Hollow Wreath

Craft a wreath with a hollow cavity inside to use as an armature for your flowers
Pine NeedleTube
27 December 2017
Pine NeedleTube

Glue pine needles to a up-cycled disk to create a winter scene
Twinkle and Pine Christmas Star
20 December 2017
Twinkle and Pine Christmas Star

Use a cardboard shape to craft a simple wire Christmas star
Secret Battery holder
20 December 2017
Secret Battery holder

Sometimes the best way to hide something in your design is right in the open
Skeleton eyeball blossoms
25 October 2017
Skeleton eyeball blossoms

Hydrangea skeleton blossoms with Eucalyptus eyeballs
Willow Paddle
25 October 2017
Willow Paddle

Weave willow between the fork in a twig to create a paddle like armature
A Dandelion Seed Puff that stays just so
17 May 2017
A Dandelion Seed Puff that stays just so

Use a thin wire to puff out dandelion seeds to look like it spilled from a basket
Barely there Wreath armature
30 November 2016
Barely there Wreath armature

Glue snippets of Baby's breath and grass into a lace fine wreath shape to showcase the tiny chocolate cosmos buds
Folded Bleached Baby’s Breath Wreath Armature
26 October 2016
Folded Bleached Baby’s Breath Wreath Armature

Glued Baby's Breath Wreath, folded in half to create a moon shaped armature
Hanging Tillandsia
17 August 2016
Hanging Tillandsia

There are many ways to hang your air plants in a design. In this Tutorial I explore three
Loosened Wreath Armature
4 May 2016
Loosened Wreath Armature

Snip a dried twig wreath to undo the spirals to hang around a glass container
Related Designs
Forest Filigree Christmas Wreath
7 December 2011
Forest Filigree Christmas Wreath

I wanted my Hazel twig wreath to look like forest filigree: mysteriously overgrown, tangled with age and dappled with moss and lichen. The wreath is also dressed with fresh and dried flower bud clusters and operculum of Eucalyptus.
The last Vine Wreath
20 January 2011
The last Vine Wreath

Every designer knows how to stretch their supplies. We use and re-use our dried plant material until our fellow designers feel like hiding it from us. I formed such an attachment to my vine wreaths. This post features four designs using the same wreaths.
Finding balance
18 September 2024
Finding balance

Balancing dried ribbons of foliage to craft a wind twisted floral display.
I mean… really!?!
24 January 2024
I mean… really!?!

Using fresh twigs to bind a little twig platform to suspend the beautiful orchids from.
So Into Fall
4 October 2023
So Into Fall

Keep you fresh plant material hydrated in water... and your dried plant material suspended to keep it from falling into the water.
Tail End Of The Season
5 October 2022
Tail End Of The Season

A display armature for a delicate autumn display.
Of the shades to come
7 September 2022
Of the shades to come

This design requires a bit of prep-time so it is perfect to make while waiting for the first autumn leaf to appear…
Make Believe
8 June 2022
Make Believe

Ever seen an eucalyptus flower? This is... and is not one.
Wonderful and Enough
4 May 2022
Wonderful and Enough

That incredible moment when you realize that one good idea for your design really is enough...
Coppepeppepepper wreath
3 November 2021
Coppepeppepepper wreath

Wire dried pepper berries to a wreath with super fancy flat wire (okay... it's the humble wire from a copper pot scrubber but it still looks fancy!)
First we learn HOW to design… and then we learn how only WE design.
7 April 2021
First we learn HOW to design… and then we learn how only WE design.

Whipped up to be light in the Spring breeze wreath design.
Let’s circle around to this one
7 October 2020
Let’s circle around to this one

Create a floral circlet to rest the little pumpkin on... but above the water line.
End Up
24 June 2020
End Up

Connect small wreaths to create a pretty summer armature to arrange your flowers on.
How to lay a little bit low
25 March 2020
How to lay a little bit low

A flat-lay to celebrate finally finding the perfect way to dry passion fruit flowers... and my book's first birthday but mostly the drying of passion fruit flowers thing.
On-Spring-dium
11 March 2020
On-Spring-dium

A almost impossibly delicate oncidium (dancing lady) orchid wreath.
Heard it through the grapevine?
15 May 2019
Heard it through the grapevine?

Have you heard? I have wonderful news this week. Oh! and I also have this pretty grapevine armature shaped like the petals of an open rose to show you. But... Have you heard my wonderful news???
Rules!
21 November 2018
Rules!

The first design I did for my book launch demonstration looking at aspects that influences my effortless style of designing.
Hole-ding it’s breath
12 September 2018
Hole-ding it’s breath

Craft an almost Autumn armature from dried sweet pea vines
Up around the bend
7 February 2018
Up around the bend

Bend Equisetum into curves to wire into an open wreath shape
Up around the bend
7 February 2018
Up around the bend

Bend Equisetum into curves to wire into an open wreath shape
Can it be?
27 December 2017
Can it be?

Craft a pine tube to display a soft and snow filled winter scene
A Very Merry Christmas Star
20 December 2017
A Very Merry Christmas Star

A wire Christmas star with a secret plan to hide the twinkle
When the pretty eyeballs you back!
25 October 2017
When the pretty eyeballs you back!

Barely there skeleton blossoms with Eucalyptus eyes for my Halloween design... Oh! and a Willow Paddle, which probably should have been the main Tutorial... but... well...
All things Autumn (by which I mean all things chocolate): Worth a second look
30 November 2016
All things Autumn (by which I mean all things chocolate): Worth a second look

This was the fourth (and last) design I did in my "All things Autumn (by which I mean all things chocolate)" floral art demonstration
Harvest Moon
26 October 2016
Harvest Moon

Fold a fine twig wreath in half to create a moon shaped armature
There are Octobers
19 October 2016
There are Octobers

Autumn wreath
Strangeness
17 August 2016
Strangeness

Weave a wreath to display air plants on
Ring-a-round
4 May 2016
Ring-a-round

Open a vine wreath to create a spiral twig armature around a glass container
Christmas Waves
16 December 2015
Christmas Waves

Twist a Kalanchoe and Ivy vine Christmas tree mobile
Watch the leaves turn
21 October 2015
Watch the leaves turn

Roll autumn leaves to create a wreath
Favourite Flowers
Lathyrus
Lathyrus

This design was entered in the craft section of a show. I grew my bag over 12 weeks. Each day I would guide the tiny fresh growth of the Sweet Pea plants to completely cover the...
Hydrangea
Hydrangea

Dried and fresh hydrangeas with sticks and bark