Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Balancing the curved stems of dried Autumn leaf tubes
- 11 November 2015
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Gather a few large autumn leaves with really long stems and set it aside to dehydrate and start to dry. For my design I gathered some Tulip tree leaves.
Roll the large leaf around a dowel stick. To make it easier to remove start to roll the one end...
... and secure it by rolling the other end over the leaf
Fold the stem over to curve back.
Wrap the next leaf to hold the previous one in place
Curve its stem over and wrap the next leaf.
Loosely tie the leaves and set aside to dry
Carefully untie the ribbon to remove the leaves
Starting at the lowest leave, carefully unwrap
Because the leaf is dried it retains the tube shape and the stem remains curved.
Hook the leaf over the edge of the container.
Balance the stems all the way around the container, spacing them out as you go along.
Secure with a tiny drop of flower adhesive if you want to move the container
Move the stems so that it crosses over in the middle.
Place a tiny water source in the leaf tube for the fresh flowers
See the detailed Tutorials below on how I make my own water source from drinking straws and how to wire the straw to dangle in the leaf tube
Fill with water and add the tiny oncidium orchids
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Tutorials
When you need to keep a tiny stem hydrated this is just what you need.
Rolled leaves offer support for floral stems
I don't always want to wire my test tubes into the design. I like to create a bit of movement by simply hooking the tubes to gently swing.
Fold and then stitch a long fall leaf garland to roll into a coil
Create a textured wreath with Chrysanthemums and rolled up Autumn leaves
Favourite Flowers
Dancing lady
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Skewer Dracaena leaves into a roll that supports a tiny water source for the Oncidium orchids
I would definitely describe my own personal style as minimalist classic... but with an edgy twist.
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