Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Dendrobium orchid and grass snippet cone around a glass container
- 27 July 2022
- click to send Christine a smile
Cut the firmer side of the grass into snippets.
This is ideal for when you have left-overs after weaving a design.
Place the grass on the outside of the container and secure it with glue.
Build up the grass armature by securing grass snippets all the way around.
The hardest part of this design is the beginning. Getting those snippets to balance so that you can secure them is a balancing act! I have a tip for you on how I do this in this week's email. If you are not yet signed up to receive the once a week email (always on a Wednesday morning, my time) the sign up is below this post.
To make sure you can still remove the snippets without damaging them take care to glue only the grass to the grass and not to the glass.
And wiggle the armature to make sure you have enough grass snippets everywhere around the armature so that it keeps its shape.
Design tip: While you glue the snippets try to glue as many as possible blades of grass to other grass snippets in three other places. This is the easiest way to ensure the armature is as sturdy as possible.
Lift the grass snippet from the container...
Fill the fishbowl container with deep water.
Turn the cone snippet over and place it over the vase.
Place the dendrobium orchids into the vase by hooking some of the flowers over the grass snippet and letting the stems dangle in the water.
Dendrobiums are wonderfully robust. Book readers have a look at page 218 where I show you how their unique and surprisingly robust throat shape can be used to absolutely make a design.
Add in a few blades of grass to sweep over the edge of the snippets.
And add in a few sparkling dew drop crystals to finish the design
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Tutorials
It's sometimes difficult to place a tiny crystal or bead exactly where you want it.
Most leaves and foliage can be slightly manipulated to curve or curl.
Glue twig snippets to closely follow the shape of a glass vase
Stack snippets of grass on a wire frame to make a floating pyramid armature
Keep all the fresh flower material hydrated in water by weaving the stems from one side of the vase to the other.
Craft a dried cane globe for the armature of the design and then add lily grass to dry in place.
Create a light and transparent collar-base for the large composite flower to nestle into.
Putting the focus on the flowers with an ever changing design.
Crafted from a hand full of twigs to give you a large design... even though you add only two stems of sweet peas.
A great do-in-advance and reusable design solution for a winter, early spring floral display.
Craft a light and airy grass halo to suspend tiny drop crystals around gorgeous roses.
Using dry and fresh floral material in one design without the dry becoming soggy and the fresh drying out.
Related Designs
A glued snipped to create a cooling cone for dangling orchids
A creative way to keep foliage hydrated for a cool, water filled summer design.
Oncidium orchids hiding in a woven grass cup. This Design Tutorial is featured on The Conna Flower and Garden Club (Ireland) website. It is part of their Floral Art Lessons...
Using that little something that is unusual about your flower to make the design stand out.
Instead of just placing a handful of twigs and two stems of sweet peas in a vase... why not...?
A creative design that has some height to it without blocking the view. This can easily be scaled up or down to match the environment you want to display it in.
A delicate winter twig armature to show off the delicate beauty of these early spring coloured tulips.
Grass crisscross that makes you want to lean in closer to count the late summer raindrops around these gorgeous roses.
The dry wheat stems are suspended from the outside of the container so that they remain dry and the flower stems can gently rest inside to remain hydrated.
Delicate cherry twig, rosary vine and oncidium orchid enchanted forest masquerade masque.