Sticktoitness that gets you Unstuck

Create a sticky grid for the lightest and dreamiest Spring floral display.

Make a Stuck with an Unstick Stick Maple Seed Spring floral frog… but for a grasshopper pair.

Use the sticky side of sticky tape to create the lightest possible floral frog to display your floral details in.

Getting the Band Back Together Again

Glue a band of snow dusted twigs to create a delicate armature for winter treasures.

Snowy twig band armature for a ever changing winter display

A well made snow covered twig band armature will last all winter so that you can display even the most delicate winter treasures.

bonfire

A final rosy burst of fiery autumn colour.

A Reflex Rose Rose Hip… Rose

Making a rose even more roselike by enhancing its rosy-ness.

Ship Shape

The dry wheat stems are suspended from the outside of the container so that they remain dry and the flower stems can gently rest inside to remain hydrated.

Hovering golden wheat Ghost Ship armature

Using dry and fresh floral material in one design without the dry becoming soggy and the fresh drying out.

Counting Raindrops

Grass crisscross that makes you want to lean in closer to count the late summer raindrops around these gorgeous roses.

Scattered dried grass with raindrop crystals

Craft a light and airy grass halo to suspend tiny drop crystals around gorgeous roses.

From all sides

An all on one side design to admire roses from all sides.

Stacking stems to show off flowers from all angles

Roses so pretty you want to admire them front, side and back.

Pick Love

Craft a willow heart to display 12 red roses to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Willow and Rose heart armature

Weave willow stems into a heart shaped armature.

Playing Favourites

A quick and easy Kenzan design

Piece of the forest

Standing roses upright in a shallow container

A Jingle Cotton Christmas

Cover a wreath frame with bark and cotton for a textured Christmas wreath design

A Gleaming Cotton Christmas

Glue bark to a wire frame to create a Christmas stocking armature

Add a Cotton pod Cuff to the Bark Christmas Stocking Armature

A fluffy cuff lines the top edge of the bark Christmas Stocking

A Candy(cane) Cotton Christmas

A floral cotton candy cane

There are Octobers

Autumn wreath

Because I think I am making Progress

Create a floral ceiling

Ring-a-round

Open a vine wreath to create a spiral twig armature around a glass container

Where would you put it!?!

Tie a twig armature enclosure for fresh flowers

A lots of stuff and things

Sticks and twigs create a resting spot for palm and rose butterflies

Autumn is a mosaic of them all

Easy to assemble fall leaf and tissue paper gift bag

Autumn leaf and decorative tissue paper gift bag

A gift bag that dries beautifully

On Pumpkin Coloured Days

Create a besom broom to sweep up those Autumn leaves

Oh!

Wrap and weave grass to create a rose sphere

Say "I Do" to design decisions

This is my article that I wrote for the Bridal Design Issue of Canadian Florist Magazine

As the leaves melt away

Spike a few hundred fall leaves to create a cauldron for Halloween flowers

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

Tying the knot and loosening those curls

Romantic rose centerpiece with just a bit of an edge featured in the DIY Wedding Magazine

The Beauty in the Sleeping Woods

As a floral artist I am inspired by the endurance of nature and my work is still re-creating the Sleeping Beauty Castle of my imagination.

A plait, a braid or a French knot grass collar

"Plaid" and "braid" are synonyms, and where you are from will most likely dictate whether you use plait (British) or braid (American or Celtic). Some people also refer to cornrows as braids or refer to pinned up plaits as braids. A French braid is a braiding technique.

Words Matter.

Braiding and plaiting and knotting hair is a huge trend in hairdressing at the moment. Intricate little plaits are draped over long flowing hair to add complexity and quirk. It’s a lovely design trend to add to floral art.

A Floral Fable: Floriograpy Design

This is the fourth and last design I did for my Floral Fable demonstration.

A Floral Fable Design demonstration Floral Art Structures

I did a Floral Art demonstration at The Capilano Flower Arranging club. Over the next few weeks I will show the designs in detail and add the design tutorials. This week I’ll look at the concept, the basic mechanics and the Floral Art structures, constructions and armatures used in the demonstration.

A Floral Fable Design demonstration at the Capilano Flower Arranging club

My demonstration explored ways to tell a story with floral art designs

All in the same boat

Cymbidium Friendship Arrangement in a Papier Mache Container

The Asian Cymbidium is considered a gift of respect and friendship. The florets are also considered symbols of "virtue" and "morality" in many other cultures.

Oh, What Twisted Tales We Weave

"What Twisted Tales We Weave" design 2010 Floral Trends Design Group, South Africa.

Kitchen Garden

Kitchen Garden Design. South African Horticultural Society Show 2009

Flower Festival: Methodist Church Hall, Durbanville, South Africa

Six wall designs staged for the Durbanville Flower Club Flower Festival.

Veiled Sunshine:50th Anniversary of the South African Orchid Society at the Cape Town Convention Centre.

Bright and sunny cymbidium orchids and roses, lilies, lisianthus and pincushions

Feeling Funky

I wove vine wreaths to form a pyramid, one just slightly larger than the next. In the natural cavities between the wreaths I placed the roses and lisianthus in plastic covered Oasis

Floral Carpet

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

Floral Trends Design Group Opening Demonstration: 2010

A look at the Old and New of Floral art

Easter Parade Demonstration and Accessory Workshop

Advanced level Workshop: For my Easter Parade Demonstration I made 6 hand-tied designs within armatures. The concept was to pick up the design while demonstrating and to literally "parade" from country to country around the world (and from table to table around the audience) to explore how Easter is celebrated in different cultures.

"Canada" Demonstration in Cape Town, South Africa

After our second Canada visit in 2009 I did a demonstration entitled "Canada" at the Durbanville Flower Club in South Africa

Hanging Garden

Hanging garden Design using Rainbow Oasis Powder

A Work of Heart

Carving hearts out of Rainbow Oasis to create an under water design

I've got my head in the clouds

Wax and Rainbow Oasis keep the flower heads in place.

Ground Breaking

Water stream breaking through ground in an autumn forest.

The last Vine Wreath

Every designer knows how to stretch their supplies. We use and re-use our dried plant material until our fellow designers feel like hiding it from us. I formed such an attachment to my vine wreaths. This post features four designs using the same wreaths.

In the Summer Time Floral Art Demonstration

This was my first Floral Art Demonstration as a member of the South African Flower Union and the World Association of Flower Arrangers