To stand firm and draw a strong line

Flat Spade Tip Tweezers

Oh yes, it has indeed come to this! When design details become so tiny and delicate we must refine our tools and resort to designing with tweezers. But sharp tweezers can easily snap delicate plant material, or if not snap at least bruise. Enter: stamp collectors tweezers. Unlike sharp tweezers these are ideal for hooking and designing delicate plant material in small spaces without squishing or cutting the plant material.

Dew-Drop Crystals

I created the Tutorial for how I add these crystals to my floral designs 11 years ago! Since then I have tried, tested and searched for the perfect crystals that would go from studio‑table picture perfect to show‑day‑dependable and I always come back to these. They remain the absolute best. They’re inexpensive yet have a refined, high‑quality crystal brilliance; they don’t tarnish and their adhesive backing stays reliably tacky even after they were exposed to water.

The Effortless Floral Craftsman, a floral crafter's guide to crafting with nature

For more information about my book (and to read the first 38 pages for free...) here is the shop link.

Draw a vine (or three) through a Bark base

A bark tube to create an enchanted autumn rain display... on two bud vases.

Using a pin to place tiny dew drop crystals

It's sometimes difficult to place a tiny crystal or bead exactly where you want it.

Bark Bowl

Glue bark onto a bowl to create a dome shape

Bark pod for growing a Pearl Oyster mushroom mini farm

Glue bark to a Papier Maché and wire frame to create a pod shaped armature

Stand bark on pointe to display the sweetest sweet peas

Create a natural armature for a summer display

Wedding welcome and direction sign

Hang a twig and wood mobile at your weeding as a direction board

Wind Spinner

My inspiration for my Harnessing the Wind design was a wind spinner.

A bark design surface that suspends the first Spring flowers to rest just below the surface.

Glue two large bark chips to craft a large design platform to suspend the most delicate of floral details in a "I wish it was Spring already" arrangement.

Bark covered heart

Cover cardboard with bark to create a heart shaped log

Wood chip and sparkle mushroom cornucopia

A horn of plenty... seasonal sparkle.

Foxtail in a bud vase forest floor

Create a sturdy platform from bark to design an entire forest floor on a single foxtail fern frond

A not yet all done… bark floral frog to catch that feeling of setting out together to collect the Christmas Tree to decorate

Create a design with a hint of incompleteness… something to still look forward to.

Craft a birch bark bud vase topper for a openhearted Valentine's display

Craft a keepsake heart on top of a vase to display special flowers.

Kenzan peg bark curls into a hollow and bottomless log vase

Craft a bottomless vase out of bark so that the floral stem is supported but can still stand in water to remain hydrated.

Fill hollow bark with test tubes

Glue tiny sections of pipe to the bark to fill as a water source for the fresh flower material

Bark Veneer Cardboard Floral Cake

Glue a stack of cardboard circles to create a log-like floral cake

Bark Veneer Cardboard Cake stands

A quick and easy way to make a cardboard cake stand

Using the new growth on blossom branches as a base for a woodland design

A fun way to use your blossom branches in a design once all the petals fall.

Potted bark pod for a flowering plant

Cover a Styrofoam shape with bark to create a bowl for a potted design

Still

My bark bowl design and tutorial featured in the Centrepiece Wedding Magazine

Growth Medium

Design a bark and moss pod for a mushroom mini farm

Do you know what the point is?

A bark armature standing on pointe for some gorgeous blue King Tut sweet peas

Wedding Welcome

My article and wedding direction board design featured in DIY Weddings Magazine

Vanilla

Vanilla Design for the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, Cape Town, South Africa

Harnessing the Wind

When the Pretty much Pretty flows, it lingers in our hearts

A bark support to display the most delicate Spring floral treasures.

A quirky kind of Love

Retail florists and wholesalers are already designing, ordering and preparing their product range for Valentine's Day. This is my article that I wrote for the December 2012 Valentine's Day Design Issue of Canadian Florist Magazine

Floral Carpet

Durbanville Flower Club: Nature's Treasures, A Floral Art Exhibition at D'Ville Shopping Center Durbanville, Western Cape, South Africa

It's High Time for Tea: from craft to art, taking a delicious floral journey with veneer techniques

This was my second two designs for my It's High Time for Tea Floral Craft and Art Demonstration at The Capilano Flower Arranging Club meeting.

Plenty Glow to Harvest

Glow and sparkle bark armature to celebrate the first signs of Autumn

Tail end of the story

Craft a bark platform to design on in a foxtail fern frond.

A Very Merry… all elf pass into Santa’s Workshop for a dash of Having Something To Look Forward To

An on-purpose-not-yet-quite-done design to remind us to enjoy the Christmas moments as they unfold.

Spoiler Alert: It’s You

A birch bark heart for Valentine's Day

What goes around

Display a single stem flower in an Autumn leaf twirl

So this is Christmas, I hope you had fun…

Capilano Flower Arranging Club Designing for Christmas Workshop: Yule log

All A-flutter

Adding a few fluttering petals to a design.

As special as an almost never find

Sometimes you find such a beautiful plant that you just can't bring yourself to cut it. This design explores using the entire plant, pot and all, in a design