My Creative Workbook

Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman

Curve a feather

Just as you can adjust the curve of the twig you can do the same with a feather

Just as you can adjust the curve of the twig you can do the same with a feather...

See the Tutorial below for more detailed instructions on how to curve twigs.

Buffer the feather with the pad of your finger from behind

Buffer the feather with the pad of your finger from behind and carefully start to curve it with your finger nail.

Move along the feather and carefully curve it

Move along the feather and carefully curve it down the hollow shaft from the tip to the quill.

Creating an elegant curve in a feather

Creating an elegant just drifted down and fell this way curve in the feather.

The fluffy feather is really difficult to glue down without ruining the downy barbs with a blob of glue or adding to little glue so that the feather falls off or wobble awkwardly.

My tip for you is to add the glue to the thing you want to glue the feather to

My tip for you is to add the glue to the thing you want to glue the feather to...

And then gently settle the feather in the exact position you want it

And then gently settle the feather in the exact position you want it to settle.

So that the glue is in the bottom side of the feather

So that the glue is in between the twig and the bottom side of the feather.

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

Tutorials

7 April 2012 Paste and cut Wooden Feathers

Wood glue makes wood veneer or Kyogi paper soft and playable to make feathers with

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...

28 December 2016 Adding snow to twigs

Glue artificial snow to twigs

4 December 2013 Large wax snowflakes

Artificial snow can be very "chemical" and flowers deteriorate quickly when exposed to it. It also dissolves in water. I use candle wax as "snow"

3 January 2012 Bubble raft to float flowers

Flowers naturally float in water. They just don’t always naturally float on water. For that they sometimes need a bit of help.

21 March 2012 Where to cut Tulips to condition

Here is a trick to make sure your tulips will condition thoroughly

21 January 2015 Braiding three Tulip stems

Plait Tulip stems

11 May 2011 Slow down tulip growth, after the stems have been severed from the bulbs

Tulips continue to grow after being cut. Sometimes when you make a very small design or for competition or bridal work you want to minimize growth. The best way to do this is to...

4 April 2018 Tap in a Twig Support

Wedge snipped twigs into a glass vase to act as a support for your flowers

1 April 2020 Using your seriously cool hot glue skills to glue a wire support for a tulip stem

A clever almost concealed wire support to keep a single tulip flower upright in a minimal bud design.

Favourite Flowers

Tulipa

Tulip

Related Designs

20 January 2021 Hope Bubble

That good old double vase trick... but this time I deliberately added a bubble between the two layers to create a third circle in the design.

3 January 2012 Going Cold Twinkle Turkey

Is it better to go Cold Twinkle Turkey and embrace the minimalist living room or rather ease into it?

1 March 2017 Gumusservi

To celebrate the 6th year anniversary of My Creative Workbook I am looking at the most popular Tutorial I have done to date:

21 January 2015 Tiptoe through the Tulips

Braid Tulip stems to set in water

27 January 2016 Well, I'll be

Manipulate fresh willow stems to create a sprouting armature for long tulip stems

22 February 2017 Perfect!

Tulips are so perfect just as they are all that is needed is to simply drape their graceful leaves around the flowers

4 April 2018 Grow on it

Wedge twigs into a vase to create a grid.

1 April 2020 Hang in there!

Keeping this tulip upright requires less magic and more hot glue skills... but it looks magical never the less.