My Creative Workbook

Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman

Connect bud vases with a fresh foliage open weave

2 February 2022
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Place a few bud vases in a long container.

Fill all the vases with water.

... So that you create a long section for the woven panels to remain hydrated and bud vases for the flowers to sit perfectly upright.

Add your flowers into the bud vases.

To contrast the weave that I will add I wanted my flowers to look almost wild. So measure out what you want to be your highest flower to get the proportions right and then snip and add the rest of the flowers so that they appear wild and not too styled.

Cross your foliage on a flat working surface to start the weave...

And simply weave the foliage in an over and under basket weave pattern.

Oh you know I love weaving! If you want to learn a lot more about weaving with grass and foliage turn to page 226-235 of my book. But to get you started I have also linked a basic Tutorial below this post.

For more information about my book: The Effortless Floral Craftsman

Make sure the foliage curves towards the same direction to create a minimal weave.

I also have a bonus tip for you this week in our email to show you in detail how to weave so that the foliage can be easily be moved and hydrated. Make sure to sign up if you are not yet receiving my first-thing-every-Wednesday-morning-to-tell-you-the design-is-ready notification email. The sign up is below this post.

Carefully pick the weave up...

And place it in the long container in front of the bud vases.

Adjust the weave so that it leans from the inside out to fill the container.

Turn the container and push the bud vases against the woven panel to make space for a second panel.

Weave another panel just like the first...

So that it can back the first weave...

And slip it into the water filled container.

Adjust the weave so that it mirrors the opposite side to finish off the design.

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Tutorials

8 June 2011

Foliage Weaving

For this tutorial I focus on a simple weave pattern that does not require you to soften or prepare the leaves to be more durable or flexible. This is the starting point in weaving techniques. You can build on this technique to make floral handbags, gift boxes, and baskets, sew it into a curve or wrap it around a vase or cover a test tube.

29 January 2020

Weave a long lasting (without using floral foam) in a vase floral design basket

Give your woven grass a water source by designing the basket in a vase rather than placing the vase in a basket

27 February 2019

Weave a floral trap

Keep your flowers in place with an all natural woven trap.

3 February 2021

Weave a Ceropegia Woodii Vine grid to catch your flowers

Suspend flowers over a water filled container by weaving a natural grid.

22 August 2018

Vein Veil For Freesias

Cut a slight veil to frame your flowers with

25 January 2017

Detailing a messy edged grass basket

Weave a basket from lily grass and then cut and curl the edges

13 July 2016

Woven lily grass parachute armature

Weave a canopy or parachute shaped armature in a way that you can place the stems in two vases to keep it hydrated.

3 April 2013

Twin Leaf Weave

Weave two palm leaves together to create a floral grid

12 August 2015

Messy edged basket

Weave a loose basket to display flowers

27 August 2014

Loosely woven grass on Driftwood

Loosely weave grass on a piece of driftwood for an informal armature

16 June 2021

Shelter grass veil for a round container

A single lily flower design dressed up with a grass veil.

26 July 2023

A woven grass grid cage for flying Column and Augmented petal Phalaenopsis orchids

Pick away the petals from a few Phalaenopsis orchids to display in a summer grass tunnel design.

3 May 2023

Standing flower stems upright In Perlite

I use perlite to root my cuttings... and to support flower stems in an upright position in designs without using floral foam.

22 February 2023

A knot and a lean and hand full of snippets in a bud vase

Using all parts of a small bunch of iris flowers to craft a unique display.

2 March 2022

Weave a lily grass shelter for a suspended flower stem

Hide the prettiest of flowers in the entire bunch in plain sight by framing it with elegant grass.

Related Designs

29 January 2020

Peekaboo

A light and airy (no floral foam but still long lasting) floral design for those days that you are really, really looking for signs of Spring.

27 February 2019

It’s a trap!

Weave a trap to keep your floral details suspended in a square container.

29 May 2019

Creative Competition

This week I am so excited to share my article and design that was published in the recent issue of the Floral Art Society of New Zealand's Academy Magazine for NZ qualified teachers, judges and demonstrators. It's all about good competition.

3 February 2021

here’s the catch

Weave an all natural net to place over a vase to keep your flowers above water.

22 August 2018

FreestyleFreesia

Dutch floral designer Pim van den Akker, from Flower Factor invited me to participate in a FloraHolland initiative promoting the versatility of Freesias entitled #FreestyleFreesia Here is the extended version of my video.