Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Corn-o’leaf mummy-o'lantern
- 12 October 2022
- click to send Christine a smile
As always step one is to fill a vase with water so that the fresh flowers can to remain hydrated. The vase for this design works best if it opens up right at the top...
Arrange your flowers to radiate out around the edge of the container...
Design note: Keep things interesting by slightly sloping the flower stems to be longer at one end.
Measure and fit a fishbowl vase to make sure it fits on the stems without breaking the stems... or interfere with their ability to take up water.
Soak some corn foliage in hot water.
It starts off brittle but as it soaks it becomes lovely and pliable.
Wipe the corn foliage with a paper towel to clean and to make sure it is no longer soggy.
Stick two eyes on the fishbowl vase. You can use eyes or as I did here use crystals and then draw in the eyes right at the end.
Design note: I draw in the eyes right at the end to add to the personality of the mummy making it look in a certain direction or enhancing its expression once you see what the other details adds up to.
Wrap a corn leaf around the fishbowl vase above the eyes.
Tuck in the second corn leaf and wrap it around the vase securing the first leaf as you wrap over it.
Knot the ends of the foliage in a exaggerated knot where the ends meet.
Wrap around another leaf...
And knot it to secure.
Wrap around and around the vase...
Leaving only the section with the eyes open... and then push open a section for the mouth.
Again this adds personality. Think about your design: what expression would your mummy have? Chocolates nearby? Give it a "I can resist this... I can resist this... no I couldn't" smirk
Is it cold? Is there a scary spider? Is it also suffering from hay fever? Tell your story.
Book readers turn to page 369 of your book- the chapter where I speak of doing more than you have to. This is what it really is all about.
For more information about my book:
The Effortless Floral Craftsman
Wrap the battery pack of fairy lights with a corn leaf...
And slip the lights into the vase.
Place the fishbowl vase to rest on the flower stems.
Draw in the eyes to finish the mummy's expression
Finish the design with an easy corn leaf collar... Place two elastic bands around the vase.
Slip a corn leaf behind the bands to follow the shape of the vase... and dangle over the top edge.
Add in the next leaf to slightly overlap the first.
Twist the vase and add the next leaf all the way around.
This is a fairly straight forward design. Simply slip in the flowers and craft the mummy. If you want to add a few more designed details, such as adding height or width to your arrangement I have a few practical tips for you in this week's email. Make sure you are signed up. I send out the notification email, every Wednesday morning with a design specific tip. The sign up is below this post.
Finish the design by wrapping two long sections of corn leaves around the vase to conceal the elastic band.
Sign up for my weekly newsletter
Every week I add a new design with related tutorials. Be sure to subscribe to receive an email notification with design inspiration.
Tutorials
Cover a balloon with skeleton leaves to create a cocoon
Suspend a heavy butternut over water in an early Autumn design.
Use a wreath to keep flower and a heavy little ghost pumpkin in place in a small vase.
It’s amazing how we sometimes try to complicate a design. I tried adding calla lilies… took them out and loved the willow. Added gerberas. Took them out and loved the willow....
Made from dried cherry twigs and a skeleton leaf.
Eerie! Because you use what is there already in the twigs this skeleton looks rather... realistic!
Favourite Flowers
Inca lily, Peruvian lily or lily of the Incas
Related Designs
Oh my... a corn leaf mummy head for autumn... looking ahead to Halloween styling.
Take a handful of grass... but then add just enough design to make it interesting.
Time to cut down vines... and enjoy them a bit longer in a Halloween display.
Barely there skeleton blossoms with Eucalyptus eyes for my Halloween design... Oh! and a Willow Paddle, which probably should have been the main Tutorial... but... well...
Create a floral circlet to rest the little pumpkin on... but above the water line.
A twig and stick design with sweet dumpling pumpkins and rosary vine (Ceropegia woodii). I also made a cherry twig and skeleton leaf Stick Insect
An all plant zero waste, levitating, twig (with just a splatter of autumn leaves, a breath of spiderweb and float of roots) Halloween decoration with an eerie bat skeleton made...
An easy going design of ripped grass and calla lilies. But look a bit closer. See if you can find Mr. Stalk relaxing somewhere between the blades of grass.
Give a loosely woven wreath legs to stand on to hover lightly around a pumpkin
A floral design snapshot of what it looks like when walking down the streets of Vancouver this week.