Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Floral Ice Cream Cones
- 14 January 2013
- click to send Christine a smile
- and more
A weave creates a strong cone base for the design. There are two ways to shape a woven cone:
Roll the cone shape:
Rip a sheet of Kyogi paper or thin shaved wood into thin strips. Start to weave the strips in a plain weaving pattern.
Add a few more strips and weave them in following a over and under pattern.
Woven mat ready to shape into cones
Cut the woven mat in three and tightly roll the cone shape
Glue the strands that overlap
Weave the cone shape:
Weaving the cone creates a wider opening
Weave four strands of shaved wood
Secure the weave with a small bit of masking tape and fold the strips over to create a sharp triangle at the bottom of the cone
Fold over the rest of the strands and continue to weave the cone
Add more strips and continue to weave. Pull the strips tight as you go. End off the cone by weaving any loose ends back in on itself
For the loosely woven ice cream top
Pour wood glue into a bowl and thin with warm water
Soak ripped foliage strands in the glue mixture. I used ripped Cymbidium orchid leaves
Place an elastic band around a glass bottle. This will make it easier to keep the ripped strand in place when you start to weave it
Catch the first strand under the elastic and wrap it up and around the bottle
Weave the strand over and under the previous strand to make sure it closely follows the shape of the bottle
Crumble up a bit of foil
And shape it to create the tip of the ice cream
Continue to add strands all the way from the elastic band to over the foil tip
Hold the glue soaked strips in place with small butterfly hair clips while you wait for the glue to dry
Continue to weave in strips to create a strong shape. Do not add too many strips at once. The weave should be more of a veil than a dense mass
Paint the shape with thinned glue
Let the glue dry completely
Remove the elastic band
And remove the butterfly hair clips
Wiggle the strands loose with a nail cuticle pusher
And remove the shape
Fit the shape on the cones and trim the strands neatly
Glue a few tiny test tubes into the shape before gluing the shape to the cone. Fill the tubes with water.
I used my drinking straw test tubes. See Tutorial below
Place the Cymbidium orchids in the tubes and weave in a few more strands over and under the orchids to make sure they will not fall out.
Display the orchid ice cream cones on a bark and paper covered Styrofoam stand
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.
Tutorials
Butterfly hair clips are the perfect little claws to help you hold tiny items in place while you wait for glue to dry
When you need to keep a tiny stem hydrated this is just what you need. If you can't find a suitable drinking straw... I also have an upgrade: tiny food grade pipe water tubes.
Easy way to fill test tubes and easiest way to remove water from a vase
This is a great flat and open basket to take outside when “harvesting” your fall leaves, pods and flowers. Who knows, you might even find a ghost pumpkin or three…
Related Designs
This was the first two designs for my Floral Art and craft demonstration at The Capilano Flower Arranging club
This is an overview of the Floral Art and Craft Demonstration at The Capilano Flower Arranging Club. I demonstrated three floral craft cake designs and three matching floral art...
A small design to display those last Spring snippets from your garden...
When you need inspiration for a design problem study a Traditional Craft- you will be amazed!
The heart shape of my corsage is woven from shaved wood and then decorated with green strawberries. I used corsage magnets to place the corsage on the lapel of a jacket