Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Dried twig collar in a double vase display for gravity sensitive flowers
- 11 August 2021
- click to send Christine a smile
I am using that good old double vase trick to craft a collar for my design. To refresh your memory on creating a double vase design I have linked the Tutorial below this post.
These are part of my foundation techniques that I use to design. If you want to read all about foundation techniques you can find all the information in my book
The Effortless Floral Craftsman
Connect the double vases with dried grass snippets.
Glue the snippets from glass to glass to overlap at random places...
And then connect the grass snippets to create a really sturdy collar.
Move all the way around the containers and add grass snippets.
This is the basic collar structure. I will come back to it and add green stem snippets later but the collar is now sturdy enough to create a unit so that I can start working on the inside container.
Tape a grid over the inside container.
Again I have a Tutorial for you to get you started on how to tape a sticky tape grid- my twist on this technique is I always turn the tape sticky side up so that I can use it to keep my design details in place. All this is explained in the Tutorial.
Once you have a grid tape all around the container to make sure the tape stays in place to support the heavier floral details.
Pour water into the taped grid container.
Cut the lisianthus flowers short and rest it on the tape.
Build up the design by placing your flowers.
and now for that something special... cut buds to have a longer stem.
This week I explain a bit more about using negative geotropic flowers to your advantage when designing in our email. Make sure you are signed up to receive your bonus tip every week. The sign up is below this post. I send out only one email a week and these bonus tips are design specific and only available to subscribers. If you missed out on this Wednesday morning's email you can reply to the confirmation email and I will send you the tip because this one is too good to miss out on!
Place the buds in a horizontal position...
Design note: Stick the flexible stem to the sticky tape. But only the stem, keep the flower part unstuck so that it "can do it's thing" - see the email.
Add a few longer stems to dangle over the design...
So that you have flowers on different levels.
See that one flower stuck in the tape with it's flower head over the edge? That's going to be real pretty!
Take special note of these stems... our design inspiration image are of the exact same stems only a day or so later. Spectacular right?
Add a few green stem snippets to the grass collar.
Move all around the container adding stems to blend the grass in with the flowers.
Place a few hazel stems over the inner vase to blend the flowers with the grass.
Guide some of the flower buds to rest on the twigs so that no flower looks trapped.
Place a few dew drop crystals on the sticky tape to finish the design.
Now we wait... for the design to complete itself.
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Tutorials
Create a dry layer by placing a smaller vase inside the larger vase
Create a light and transparent collar-base for the large composite flower to nestle into.
Slip a leaf into the gap between two glass containers to keep it upright... and add a plastic lining to support the flowers nestled into it.
Slip a leaf into the gap between two glass containers to keep it upright... and add a plastic lining to support the flowers nestled into it.
Create a foam free stacked design by slipping flowers between stacked bowls.
Preserve some floral material to design with when it is but not quite Autumn outside.
Crafted from a hand full of twigs to give you a large design... even though you add only two stems of sweet peas.
When you glue a structure with hot glue there are always a few stray strands of glue stuck all over the design. Blow it away with a hairdryer.
Glue a few wigs to follow the shape of a glass bowl to create a disk armature
A great do-in-advance and reusable design solution for a winter, early spring floral display.
This is a great way to use all those bits of twigs and sticks in your design room to make a floral armature
Favourite Flowers
Lisianthus, Texan Poppy, Texas Bluebell, Tulip Gentian, Prairie Gentian
Related Designs
Using that little something that is unusual about your flower to make the design stand out.
A glued snipped to create a cooling cone for dangling orchids
Glue a band of snow dusted twigs to create a delicate armature for winter treasures.
Stack a few glass containers and fill each with water to a different level.
Stack two vases to create a small gap at the side to keep a leaf upright
Floral styling using mostly dried material that will last the entire Autumn.
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.
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.