Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Mud!!! Floral Art Demonstration at the Rondebosch Flower Club
- 5 April 2011
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where does mud come from?
from dancing in the rain
dancing and singing and splashing in the rain-
that's how you get great mud
so, next time it rains and rains and rains...
get out there
and make some MUD!!!
For my Mud!!! demonstration, I wanted to create a fantasy design that captures the imagination. I wanted to introduce the concept of using growing plants as design elements and explore as many as possible ways to use mud in my design.
A very emotional morning, indeed! The demonstration was held as a "fare-well-for-now" on my birthday, just 3 days before we moved from South Africa to Canada.
Spreading mud on the bark wreath to anchor mushrooms
Mud protects the surface of the design
Draping a passion fruit vine over the wood wreath
Anchoring the passion fruit vine to the bark wreath.
I made a monkey rope from bark and sisal to anchor the orchid plants
The orchid plants were conditioned over night to be able to last when used as plants in the design with their roots exposed.
I clumped a few plants together to get a large amount of roots to hang dangling down the design
Securing the vine and orchid plants to the monkey vine.
Orchid plant to drape over the front of the design.
A few orchids hang down the design in test tubes covered in willow
I also used a glue gun to add a spider web to the design
Spreading the spider web over the design.
I then sprayed the web with water to add glistening rain drops.
The bark wreath hanged from a single wire rod that would gently bob up and down as if it is dancing in the rain.
Thank you to the members of the Rondebosch Flower Club, Cape Town, South Africa for inviting me to demonstrate.
Mud!!! Floral Art Demonstration at the Rondebosch Flower Club, Cape Town, South Africa
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Favourite Flowers
Granadilla, passionflower, passion vines
Phalaenopsis, Moth orchid
Related Designs
Mud Pie Baskets, Serviettes in themed Serviette Rings and Booklets
Weaving hot glue spider webs
A cascade of orchids growing over a slice of wood. Easy to design... and even easier to maintain!
When I demonstrate I focus on sharing the art of contemporary floral design, as I see it.
I prefer not to drape fabric over or hide my designs behind a screen before a demonstration. Instead I create a "diversion" that will capture the audience's interest.
I needed the wreath to be as light as possible to make sure it would "dance in the rain" on the flexible metal stand.
I wanted my design to feature mostly growing plants- creating a natural display on the supernatural wreath.
When I started researching mud as a possible enhancement to contemporary floral art I was thoroughly inspired by the possibilities.
Because it was my birthday I wanted to give the audience each a slice of birthday cake to celebrate with me. For obvious reasons I settled on dark chocolate Mud Pies.