Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Curve a handful of grass to twist into place
- 8 October 2025
"Plaid" and "braid" are synonyms, and where you are from will most likely dictate whether you use plait (British) or braid (American or Celtic). Some people also refer to cornrows as braids or refer to pinned up plaits as braids. A French braid is a braiding technique.
I am using two small bud vases and a display tray to balance my curved design in.
Add just enough water so that it will not spill out when you place the vases on the edge of the tray to stand up at an angle.
Clean up the grasses so that they are ready to design with. Strip away all the leaves and so that you just have the tall inflorescence left to design with.
Keep the stems long so that you can combine them and cut to size once curved.
Overlap two grasses so that the inflorescence (seed heads) meet and tangle up in the middle with the stems extending away. It almost happens by itself, really. They want to tangle.
Slip the next blade through the twisted grass and tangle the next seed head just below the first couple. We are using something between a plaiting and tangling technique here. Combine the grasses into a "string". To see more about plaiting techniques have a look at the linked Tutorials below. Continue to plait and tangle the grasses towards the cut ends of the stem. If it is difficult for you to keep the stems tangled add the tiniest bit of floral glue in places to secure the grasses.
Creating a long tangled garland of grass seed heads
Curve the seed heads by curving the cut ends down.
This week in our email I tell you more about creating the perfect curve. I send out an email every Wednesday morning (Vancouver time) with a design note for you to use to make the most of each week's inspiration. The sign up is below this post.
Cut the grass and slip the curve into the bud vases.
Add in the tall stems of the end of the season salvia flowers...
So that the long stems wrap and twist and twirl around the grass...
... and the flowers settle on the curve.
Add in flowers from both ends so that they cross to look like a vine twirling over the grassy curve.
Slip the unopened flower buds through the stem to neatly anchor the flower stems into the grass seed head curve.
Add in a few shorter salvia flowers to sit low in the bud vases
When you are happy with how the flowers twirl around the grasses...
... Curl a few blades of lily grass to twirl loosely around the grass curve. You can stretch the grass into a ringlet curl. See the Tutorial below to get you started.
But I do find that I now prefer to stretch the grass into a tighter curl. Book readers turn to page 288 for the best way to curl grass. For more information about my book: The Effortless Floral Craftsman
Secure the grass with the smallest possible dot of floral glue.
And I finish off my design with a few dew drop crystals. See the Tutorials below for more detailed instructions.
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.
