My Creative Workbook

Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman

Bending blades of grass to shadow over a design

See the Tutorials below for more detailed instructions on how to manipulate twigs and grass

Cut a few fresh blades of grass

Cut a few fresh blades of grass

Bend the grass at a sharp angle without breaking it

Bend the grass at a sharp angle without breaking it

You are going to cushion the blade of grass with the pad of your finger

You are going to cushion the blade of grass with the pad of your finger

Bring your finger to your nail to pinch the blade of grass

Bring your finger to your nail to pinch the blade of grass

If you find that you press too hard use your weaker ring finder as a pad so that the blade of grass is not cut nor broken

A neat bend in the grass

A neat bend in the grass

Bend the other end in the same way

Bend the other end in the same way

And insert both ends to shadow over the design

And insert both ends to shadow over the design

Every week I add a new design with related tutorials. Be sure to subscribe to receive an email notification with design inspiration.

Tutorials

30 August 2011 Removing Oasis Floral Adhesive glue spills

The finish of every design should be flawless. Make sure there are no bits of glue visible in your design by carefully removing all traces of spills.

10 August 2011 Foliage Pleat Garland

Folding a garland from strips of a Aspidistra leaf

14 January 2011 Ripping Flax

Flax can be ripped into fibres creating long and versatile strips

12 February 2014 Lightly sprinkled foliage frog

Light as air ripped foliage flower frog

30 April 2014 Scattered grass armature

An grass armature that looks scattered but is actually very secure

19 February 2013 Manipulating stems: Snapping at an angle, Bending, Spiraling, Curling and Straightening

Most stems, twigs and even sturdier branches can be bend into shapes. It takes practice and more than a bit of patience. The main idea is to slowly manipulate the branch without...

15 April 2015 Stretching leaves and foliage into a ringlet curl

Most leaves and foliage can be slightly manipulated to curve or curl.

Favourite Flowers

Eucomis

Pineapple flowers or pineapple lilies, the Afrikaans names for the flowers are Wildepynappel or Krulkoppie and the Zulu name is Umathunga

Related Designs

10 May 2017 About a line

Skewer and line up leaves to create an armature

31 August 2022 Bud… bud… bud… they were feeling so… very blue

When life hands you dyed flowers you make... well creatively speaking it turned out to be not such a bad thing after all!

12 February 2014 Easy does it

Rip foliage to sprinkle as a light as air flower frog

30 April 2014 Scattered

Scatter some dried grass to make a floral armature

8 October 2014 Pluviophile

Float grass snippets in water

25 May 2016 Half the Fun

Cut a cabbage to create a design platform

29 June 2016 Make the design

Weave a reed cradle to suspend orchids from