Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Fresh vine display tray
- 8 October 2012
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This is based on a combination of a traditional technique used to make willow baskets and a technique used to make a cane coiled bee skep. Only I am using fresh passion fruit vines with their cut stems kept long so that each stem can be placed in a tiny water filled test tube for the vine tray to balance on.
Cut 2 lengths of bind wire and fold in half to find the middle point
Twist the wire at the middle point.
Cut and twist another wire to be exactly the same as the first two.
Twist the wires to form a double cross.
Cut a short section of vine. This section will be left out of water to dry and create a sturdy base for the tray.
Twist the wire around the stem.
Bend the stem and twist with wire to secure
Roll the stem to slowly spiral out, securing it with wire as you go along.
This will be the only part of the spiral that will be dry to make sure the coil keeps its shape.
Twist a fresh stem with wire. If the stem is hard to bend set it aside for about 20 minutes to dehydrate and become more pliable.
Continue to curl and twist the stems around in a spiral. Be very careful not to break the stem or bruise the foliage.
Add more stems as needed. Each time you add a stem make sure to leave a long enough stem to be able to bend and fit into the small test tube
When the spiral is wired, soak the vines to re-hydrate for about two hours.
The vines are ready to design with when the leaves are fully hydrated.
I placed my design in an upturned bubble grass vase. Glue the first test tube to the base of the vase and gently bend a vine stem and place into the tube.
Make sure all the stems are in water.
The vine tray is now ready to design with.
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Tutorials
I tied the strong inside veins of the 5 Aspidistra leaves (that I used to make the garland with) to make my basket armature.
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