Too Hot!

The trick to any freestanding design is to get your first three stems standing stable and secure in the water. Once you have that you can build the design around it.

When in doubt, always give your armature three legs. Two legs are simply not enough and four legs will wobble if it is even slightly off balance.

Making a truss out of sunflower stems for a free standing design

Gently pull the petals ( Ray floret) from the seeded part of the sunflower

Twirl twigs to create a balanced nest to display the beautiful orchids on

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

Splitting the chopsticks or a wooden branch, such as a willow twig creates a natural (and glue-less!) clamp.

Sunflower

Craft a three tiered, dried autumn leaf armature

Some designs really do just make themselves. I received this tiny vase for Christmas from Marius (thank you, Marius!) and while cleaning out my design room I found this little...

Create a subtle contrast by floating or anchoring some of your design elements.

Line up a few frosted twigs to march across a shallow container

Craft a free standing Sweat pea design

Stacking green stems to create an armature for short stemmed flowers.

Zig-zag grass details add a bit of tension to the design

An all plant zero waste, levitating, twig (with just a splatter of autumn leaves, a breath of spiderweb and float of roots) Halloween decoration with an eerie bat skeleton made...

Spike a wire frame into a disk floret for a light summer design.

Autumn leaf composite flower

A twig and stick design with sweet dumpling pumpkins and rosary vine (Ceropegia woodii). I also made a cherry twig and skeleton leaf Stick Insect

My fourth design in my demonstration at the BC Floral Art Society meeting

Create a upright design by supporting the flowering stems

Twirl a few willow twigs to create a balanced armature to display orchids

Hana Kubari lily stems

Freestanding willow twig armature design