My Creative Workbook

Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman

Woven

13 July 2016
click to send Christine a smile
and more

have

woven

parachute

out

everything

broken

Quote by William Stafford

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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

13 July 2016

Woven lily grass parachute armature

Weave a canopy or parachute shaped armature in a way that you can place the stems in two vases to keep it hydrated.

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.

25 August 2011

Placing orchids in test tubes

Cut the Phalaenopsis orchid with a bit of green stem attached. This will make them last longer.

20 December 2011

Weaving a gift box with a lid from palm leaves

A great all natural gift decorating alternative

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.

17 July 2012

Guacamole Green Coiled Grass Chameleon

My Chameleon is mono-botanical. Made from coiled grass

3 April 2013

Twin Leaf Weave

Weave two palm leaves together to create a floral grid

14 January 2015

Weaving Slippers from Foliage

Weave slip on shoes from palm leaves

30 April 2025

Whittle a stumpy stopper to peg precious tiny floral details in place

An easy way to create a design using only a few bits of plant material that can be maintained... effortlessly.

19 March 2025

Suspend flowers above water on two wires covered with ringlet "happy birthday streamers" made from grass

Create a wire platform to rest the fresh flowers on so that they are hydrated but not submerged in the water below the grass dome.

15 January 2025

Palm and hazel fan together to support perfect to pick Helleborus stems

Winter treasures in a small vase for an uplifting fresh flower display.

17 July 2024

Use Firethorn spears for a Vine and Orchid twist support

Sharp thorns can be used to keep your floral details in place

1 May 2024

Gap basket weave for a Spring flower container

Fiasco inspired vase cover for a small Spring design

25 October 2023

Interweave a fairy light and grass glow vase

Wrap a fairy light grid around a fishbowl vase to interweave dried grass for an almost basket display.

23 August 2023

Basket weave bunny tail grid to catch your floral details

A no waste... but still decorative way to keep your flower in place and hydrated in the warm days of summer.

26 July 2023

A woven grass grid cage for flying Column and Augmented petal Phalaenopsis orchids

Pick away the petals from a few Phalaenopsis orchids to display in a summer grass tunnel design.

5 April 2023

Interweave a dangling Egg outline Easter Wreath Basket

An open egg shaped wreath for Easter styling

24 August 2022

Balloon out grass to craft a framed armature

Carefully bubble out a tied bunch of grass to make a cavity to display gorgeous flowers.

2 March 2022

Weave a lily grass shelter for a suspended flower stem

Hide the prettiest of flowers in the entire bunch in plain sight by framing it with elegant grass.

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.

16 June 2021

Shelter grass veil for a round container

A single lily flower design dressed up with a grass veil.

9 June 2021

Baby’s Breath Wave Cascade

Easy and quick arrangement to do for summer in a vase... with just enough complexity to make you feel real good about yourself.

17 March 2021

Cone shaped leafy puddle for a short stemmed flower

Take all the usual ingredients for a budvase design- a flower, a leafy green something and roll it into something unusual to display.

10 March 2021

A tiny pebble to keep it all in place

Keep an orchid and a blade of grass on an upturned bowl... with the weight of a tiny pebble.

26 February 2020

Weave a grass Platform for an opening Tulip bud

Tulips continue to grow as they open. This means you not only have to be mindful of their proportions as they are now... but also as they will be once open.

15 January 2020

Over and under weave floral panel armature for inside a vase

Weave a small panel that fits snugly in a container for a minimal, foam free design that is quick to make but looks spectacular.

29 May 2019

Weaving and Interweaving for contrast

My block design is shaped around a Styrofoam block. It is bulky but lightweight and a great way to reuse packaging.

29 May 2019

Taking a break when weaving with grass

When weaving a more labour intensive design you might want to/have to break for a few hours. This is the best way to keep the project from dying out too quickly.

9 August 2017

Weave a flat top to tip at an angle with flower stems

Craft a platform to highlight small flowers

26 July 2017

Half wire half grass tangle to keep stems in place

Tangle and shape wire to create a half moon for grass and gyp to rest in

19 July 2017

Interweave a messy grass tumble

Loosely wrap and weave lily grass to create a planned-messy looking armature

5 April 2017

Weaving a Pillbox hat from grass

Use the "over and under" weaving pattern to weave a round, upright hat with a flat top and no brim.

25 January 2017

Detailing a messy edged grass basket

Weave a basket from lily grass and then cut and curl the edges

7 December 2016

Flat wire and grass bridal basket

Wrap grass around a flat wire shape to create a delicate bridal basket design

Related Designs

7 April 2011

Weaving with Flax

Here are a few more examples of woven flax. I also use Typha, palm, iris leaves, Kyogi paper, boat orchid leaves and aspidistra to weave with.

12 April 2011

"On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... two turtle doves"

Flax Christmas tree "cake" for the Floral Trends Design Group end of the year function.

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

14 September 2011

Cool, Collected and Contemporary

My take on harnessing elegance, simply looped from lily grass. Cool, as in attention-grabbing idea. Collected, as in held together. And contemporary as in the latest thing

20 December 2011

Our finest gifts we bring,

A small, all natural gift box woven from palm

8 May 2012

Skipping stone

Weave a grass pebble for the orchid to nestle in.

1 October 2012

How to catch a dew drop:

Weave a sphere from grass to catch a precious and exquisite and perfect glistening early autumn dew drop

3 April 2013

April showers bring May flowers

After a long winter it is always fun to use the first spring bulb flowers!

12 March 2014

Petrichor

A minimalist design in a shallow tray

23 April 2014

Bound to Keep

Weave and tie a decorative catcher to suspend flowers

14 January 2015

Take a load off

Weave slippers from foliage

30 April 2025

Of should and must

Display tiny design details in a budvase by crafting a stopper-frog.

19 March 2025

Let’s

... take a moment of reflection as we celebrate 5 years! Happy 5th birthday to my book: The Effortless Floral Craftsman

15 January 2025

What’s that word for it again?

A fun way to fan out palm leaves to display some winter pickings

17 July 2024

Refresh-ing

A tall vase for a short orchid stem summer design

1 May 2024

Favourite Take-Away

Basket weave container for some Spring floral treasures.

25 October 2023

Go on Autumn… glow!

Mixing permanent and fresh design ingredients to celebrate just how clever the glow of Autumn is.

23 August 2023

Note to Self

An easy to weave natural grid for summer floral arrangements.

26 July 2023

Column… try it flower buddies

A bottom to the top... top to the bottom support to help keep your summer flowers hydrated.

5 April 2023

Where do you even start looking?

Easter egg... egg for Easter eggs

24 August 2022

Hot air balloon

A grass bubble to frame two of the most beautiful calla lilies.

2 March 2022

The thing!?! Do you remember the thing?!?

A design that visually plays with good proportions to allow the sheltered flower to be the focal point.

2 February 2022

Putting my feelers out

Adding just a little something to a bud vase design to connect them... and make it special.

16 June 2021

Dream Rescue

Weave the most delicate grass shelter veil for a gorgeous lily.

9 June 2021

Making Waves

A quick and easy to do cascade design for summer.

17 March 2021

A scoop of pretty

A tiny budvase design that rearranges basic ingredients, such as a single leaf and an orchid to create a new design concept.

10 March 2021

The way we curve

Tiny minimal design that explores curves.

26 February 2020

To top it all off

This is a great "space-keeper" design. The tulip will continue to grow into the vase height as they open... but until then the grass platform part of the design diverts your attention to fix any issues you might experience with the proportions right now.

15 January 2020

This way we connect

Weave a connected panel to frame a single orchid.

29 May 2019

Creative Competition

This week I am so excited to share my article and design that was published in the recent issue of the Floral Art Society of New Zealand's Academy Magazine for NZ qualified teachers, judges and demonstrators. It's all about good competition.