Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
The plastic inside of a roll of Florist tape becomes a Wrist Corsage
- 24 April 2011
- click to send Christine a smile
Used the Unusual to Use as Usual, again
Up-cycling design 3
In January I touched on the subject of up-cycling in Floral Art- in fact you will notice that I often up-cycle or even down-cycle or just plain recycle items in my art. Let me explain the difference between down-cycling and up-cycling.
Down-cycling is what we understood traditionally as "recycling". Take the life-cycle of a beautiful sheet of paper. Recycled it would become a slightly off colour paper towel then compressed in a pulp mould to become a mushy cup holder and then a really ugly egg box or electronics packaging before its boiled pulp is so useless it can only be (burnable) waste.
Up-cycling is the process of converting waste materials into products that are more valuable, better quality or of a higher environmental importance. Beautiful paper, when up-cycled becomes wallpaper. Burned out candle stumps become floral vases. An old wool jersey becomes felt pebbles. A cardboard box becomes the base of my Floral Hourglass sculpture. Re-purposed wire and fishing line found between the rocks on the beach becomes my In the bag Design.
Successful up-cycling in design always appear to be seamless and never forced.
Consider adding details only if it is the natural solution to a design problem. If you force "recycling" into a design it attracts too much attention and distract from the beauty of nature- which is still the point of Floral Art.
See below for a few up-cycling designs links
I love the idea of body flowers.
You don't really need a reason to wear a floral wrist corsage but up-cycling the inner ring from your finished floral tape is most certainly cause for celebration: Yippee! I am getting a new roll of tape and Yippee! I am reducing the amount of trash my design room generates.
And to take the idea of ecologically sound design another step further: The succulents in the corsage will lasts for more than a month before some of the leaves will develop tiny roots that can then be picked off to plant.
Echiveria wrist corsage, simple and elegant
Design note: I left the corsage on my desk to see how it ages. This is the corsage one month later. If you look carefully you will see tiny roots forming on the succulents
Thank you Blossom zine online Magazine for featuring this design.
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Tutorials
Cut the plastic, sand and wrap with ribbon
Favourite Flowers
Echiveria, Hen and chicks
Related Designs
Succulents are really trendy right now. Not just as potted plants but also in designs. All the way from floral accessory to fashion accessory- right on trend!
Design 3:Wedding Tiara. This is a real Cinderella design, one moment scrubbing pots and the next getting ready for the ball.
Design 2: Up-cycle drinking straws to make tiny test tubes to hold the orchids on my willow twig blind.
Wrap a ribbon around an up-cycled plastic ring for the most comfortable wrist corsage
My article and body flowers design featured in DIY Weddings Magazine
