Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Float on a floating maple leaf grid-illusion
- 23 September 2026
So much of floral designing is actually craftsmanship-magic. We create designs that are unreal... in a real way.
For my display I am reusing plastic wrap to protect my display container. Turn the container bottom up and cover.
Press a few autumn leaves in a book to dry so that they are rigid and keep their shape.
Talking about autumn leaves... book readers turn to page 71. Where I show you how plant material take up colouring. It is of course when leaves stop drawing up chlorophyll that they shed their green blanket covering up their autumn colours that are hiding inside the leaf.
For more information about my book: The Effortless Floral Craftsman
Place your leaf on an upturned display container that is protected with plastic.
Overlap the leaves at the tips and paint wood glue on the edges to secure them together.
Scroll down for a link to the exact glue I use in my design room.
Make sure the tips of the leaves are firmly secured in three places. The leaves will form a lace thin veil over the opening of your design. We will make another plan so that it carries no weight but it should not droop and touch the water below. So take your time and secure it well. You will find more designs listed below if you need more practice.
This looks easy because we think we know where it is heading... but it is rather difficult because there is no support below the leaves!
Slowly build up the veil of Japanese maple leaves. The whole point is to use too few leaves. It should not be robust. We are creating an illusion rather than a grid.
This is one of those: when in doubt, leave it out design moments.
Set the maple leaf veil aside for the glue to cure completely. You will know it is ready when the white glue is invisible.
Carefully lift the veil from the plastic covering. Remember the leaves are brittle so go slow.
Turn the container upright and place the leaf veil over the opening.
Carefully, carefully, carefully pull the leaves and secure it with the smallest possible drop of hot glue to the container.
Secure the veil all around the container. Keep the tension though. You should not break the leaves but the veil should also not droop or hang into the container.
If this is daunting, see the Tutorial below for my upturned sticky tape trick. Practice that before trying the more sustainable (waste free) veil.
We are curious. Curiosity is what makes us lean in closer to figure things out. It is a great way for designers to create designs that gets noticed. Because we are interested in designing, a mechanic illusion is exactly what makes us lean in closer and wonder... how do you do that!?!
We know the grid-trick. We expect it in designs like this. but we also know seedpods are heavy. So... how did you do that?
The veil creates an autumn surface for the design but it is not a grid. The floral details can lean against the veil but it will not offer enough support.
Cut three robust stems to create a support.
This week in our design note email we talk about why I use three stems and how I connected them so that they become invisible in the design.
Every Wednesday morning (Vancouver time), I send out a design note as an early glimpse at the newest Design and a few notes that I picked up creating the Tutorial that might be useful to you.
If you’re new here, you can sign up below this post. And if you’ve been receiving these notes for some time, I hope they feel like a welcome break in your busy week.
Stand the stems upright in the container between the leaf veil.
Cut Eucomis seed pods from the stem to snuggle in the design like tiny pumpkins...
Glue the seedpods on to the stem pedestals with floral glue.
If you want to add more than one seedpod pumpkin make sure to glue it to the stem pedestal, either on top or even to the side or to the other seedpod and not rest it on the leaf veil.
Fill the display container with water to make sure the stems are standing in water but the level is below the dried leaf veil.
Place a Passiflora vine into the veil so that it remains hydrated and drapes around the container...
Design note: the vine will continue to grow so give it some freedom to move without breaking the leaf-veil.
Stand the Rudbeckia flowers upright in the water to just lean into the Japanese Maple illusion grid.
Adjust your floral ingredients so that they are all part of the conversation and creates a unit.
And for the magical autumn sparkle I am using a pin to place tiny dew drop crystals onto my design.
See the Tutorial below for more details.
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