Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Funnel shaped pick-up-sticks armature
- 30 January 2013
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By making a very secure armature, it is possible to stack and suspend loose twigs on top of it building on the stable foundation
Make two small wire circles...
and two large wire circles
Cut some twigs to bind to the wire circles
Bind the twig to the circle with bind wire. Cross the wire over to the back.
And back over on the other side to create a cross over pattern
Cross the wire at the back
Wrap the wire around at both sides of the cross and move both ends of wire to the side
Add another twig and repeat the pattern
Continue binding twigs to the circle
First cross the one half of the wire over
Then the over side
Fold both wires down
Fold the first wire between the twigs and around the circle
Catch the wire circle with the other wire before adding the next twig
Keep adding twigs all the way around
Secure the last twig and cut the wire short
Flip the armature around and tie the twigs to the larger wire circle
To make it easier to space out the twigs start by tying four twigs on opposite ends of the circle
This divides the funnel shape into quarters
Bind two twigs in the middle of each of the quarters
Fill in the gaps by spacing out the remaining twigs and binding it to the circle.
Cover any exposed wire with paper wire as you move around the wire circle
Wrap the paper covered bind wire a few times more than the first pattern
And tie as before all the way around.
when done...
Cut more twigs and start on the second funnel shaped armature
The two funnel shapes creates a secure armature if you let the twigs catch at the one side
Rest the armature on its side
To fill the gap and break up the strait lines of the funnel shape, stack twigs to rest loosely on the armature. The "teeth" created by the wired armature will support and keep the stacked twigs.
Carefully stack the twigs. The more twigs you stack the more stable the design becomes
Add a few twigs with natural hooks (see Tutorial below) and wire a few hooks onto the green test tubes for the lilies and loosely suspended twigs
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Tutorials
Side stems of branches can be used as hooks to hang floral material in a design.
I don't always want to wire my test tubes into the design. I like to create a bit of movement by simply hooking the tubes to gently swing.
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