On my online workbook this week: Spoiler Alert: It’s You

Dear

This week's inspiration is a connection.

For me, designing is all about creating a connection. A connection between the unique nature of my plant material and the uniqueness of my own effortless style as the floral designer. But there is another connection that always needs to be considered when designing anything: the connection between your designed object and people. The design needs to leave a mental gap for you to fill in yourself so that you, the person I made it for can connect with it as well.

My tip for you this week is about ripping the bark to fill the gaps in the design. Give the rip a start by cutting into the bark and then simply tear the bark by forcefully pulling it apart leaving layered and jagged edges. These edges look more natural than cutting the bark and also… it is more economical.

Tearing the bark gives you pieces to fill in the heart shape with longer strips that extend over the shape making it look like the heart is a pod or a knot in the bark. It is so much more forgiving to craft bark armatures with torn bark because it just somehow blends together.

But you can also separate the layers of the birch bark meaning you can cover the bottom of the heart with the stronger bottom layer of the bark and then right at the end go over the inside pieces and refine the look by simply gluing in the paper thin bark strips that you torn from the bark layers over any imperfections without distorting the shape or adding bulk.

Enjoy!

Every good wish,

Christine

ps: Have a Happy Valentine’s Day, flower buddies and thank you for working so hard to make the world a prettier place.