Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Biomimicry Demonstration and Workshop at the Floral Trends Design Group, South African Flower Union
- 22 March 2017
- click to send Christine a smile
This is a look at my design demonstration and workshop at the Floral Trends Design Group (South African Flower Union) in South Africa. You can also see the video of the workshop on my side bar.
The workshop looked at Biomimicry and how we can find the answers to our design problems by looking at how nature solves the same problem.
Biomimicry: “Is the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modelled on biological entities and processes”
It is the science and art of emulating nature’s best biological ideas to solve our modern day problems.
Floral art has always found its inspiration in replicating natural forms. Contemporary floral art no longer merely replicate the forms but also mimics the rules governing these forms.
How do we successfully make the transition between traditional and contemporary designs? When faced with a design challenge ask yourself:
How does nature make things?
How does nature make the most of things?
How does nature make things disappear?
What would nature do?
Thank you to everyone at The Floral Trends Design Group in Cape Town, South Africa for a flowery fun day of designing.
And a special thank you to Boutstix Floral Magnets for our design favours
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Tutorials
Peel away the tepals and bracts from a Protea flower hear to make a large composite flower orb
This is a fast and easy way to hang test tubes in a design
Up-cycle a pot scrubber to get a huge roll of very pretty copper wire
Curl the wire at irregular intervals to create a natural wire tendril similar to that of a passion fruit plant
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.
Using fruit, berries, flowers, leaves and grasses to naturally stain design details for floral art relies on the same techniques as using paint or any other dye.
I purchase a huge roll of sisal string to use... sometimes as string, but mostly I unravel it for the fibers
Apart from avoiding the noise popping a balloon makes this is also a less violent way to deflate a balloon when you make Papier Mache items
Favourite Flowers
Phalaenopsis, Moth orchid
Anthurium, Tailflower, painters palette, Flamingo flower
Protea (but each variety also has a common name)
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