My Creative Workbook

Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman

One tug

15 June 2016
and more

When one tugs

at a single thing

in nature,

he finds it attached

to the rest

of the world

Quote by John Muir

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Every week I add a new design with related tutorials. Be sure to subscribe to receive an email notification with design inspiration.

Tutorials

15 June 2016

Weave green strips of willow bark into a nest

Strip bark from willow to eave and set into a shape

8 June 2016

Stripping bark from willow sticks

Strip the green bark from the stems to expose the smooth wood

11 February 2015

Stripping foliage from weaving stems

Remove foliage from stems to weave with

21 July 2011

Weaving a bird

I wove my bird from shaved wood but you can also use flax, coconut palm (more traditional) or paper or ribbon

5 July 2011

Tie an Iris leaf tassel

A tassel (also called a tuft) consist of: A suspending cord, the body, a fringed or ornamental skirt

20 April 2016

Free standing Willow twig armature with a hidden water source

Cut a few willow twigs to split to create legs for the armature

1 February 2012

Weaving a diagonal green grass basket

Once you figure out how to do the corners weaving a diagonal shape is actually not that hard to do.

30 October 2012

Midelino Harvest Moon Basket

This is a great flat and open basket to take outside when “harvesting” your fall leaves, pods and flowers. Who knows, you might even find a ghost pumpkin or three…

11 December 2013

Dried twig dome

Mix glue and twigs to create a twig armature for a Winter Christmas design

17 September 2014

Bark Bowl

Glue bark onto a bowl to create a dome shape

8 June 2011

Foliage Weaving

For this tutorial I focus on a simple weave pattern that does not require you to soften or prepare the leaves to be more durable or flexible. This is the starting point in weaving techniques. You can build on this technique to make floral handbags, gift boxes, and baskets, sew it into a curve or wrap it around a vase or cover a test tube.

24 September 2025

Weaving a fan

It looks impressive... but... and don't tell anyone... this fan is rather easy to craft. It will just take a while to craft.

2 February 2022

Connect bud vases with a fresh foliage open weave

Craft two woven panels to place front and back of a couple of bud vases to create a unit.

30 May 2018

Snippet grid

Glue grass stem snippets to create a natural grid over a shallow container

Related Designs

3 April 2011

One Singular Sensation

Three Lilies plaited to create a sensational, singular flower "growing" out of a Equisetum dome filled with Rainbow Oasis pebbles.

11 April 2011

Veiled Sunshine:50th Anniversary of the South African Orchid Society at the Cape Town Convention Centre.

Bright and sunny cymbidium orchids and roses, lilies, lisianthus and pincushions

5 July 2011

Iris Tuft Tassel

Throughout their dangling history tiny to robust tassels were universally used as a finishing feature in fabric decoration and symbols of standing in religious order and nobility and military ranks.

21 July 2011

Tradition and Technique, Technique and Tradition

When you need inspiration for a design problem study a Traditional Craft- you will be amazed!

10 August 2011

Pleated Pleasure

Pleats are accordion like folds of equal width in alternating opposite directions in any kind of fabric. I absolutely love the tight buds of Allium and they represent the "pleasure" part of my design

16 August 2011

Cherry twig cocoon

Japanese aesthetic, wabi-sabi, acknowledges three simple truths:nothing lasts, nothing is done, and nothing is perfect.

1 February 2012

Steeling yourself against stealing creativity

I wrote this article for Wedding Business Success (an online meeting place for the wedding industry) exploring a positive way of looking at creativity and... stealing!