Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Get a head start with a long lasting shallow vine basket and succulent table top Spring display
- 21 February 2024
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Cut a beautiful Echeveria rosette from its roots just above the soil.
Succulents are so easy to design with. Simply peel away the lower leaves (you can root those if you wish) to give you a nice a generous stem to work with.
Book readers turn to page 104 for more detailed instructions on how to design with succulents. For more information about my book:
The Effortless Floral Craftsman
Set the succulent rosette aside so that the cut end can start to dry
Gather long passion fruit vines.
Strip the foliage carefully from the vine. Make sure all the tendrils remain.
Start by weaving a wreath with the vine... but here is the trick: see that dangling end up on top? we do not weave in the cut end so that it can remain hydrated in the water in the display vase we are placing the design on.
If you are unsure of how to weave a wreath I have a detailed Tutorial for you below. And if you want to learn more about how we are adjusting the design details so that they remain hydrated and even root see our email of this week. I send out an email every Wednesday morning (Vancouver time) the moment the design is ready to view and add a tip each week for us to discuss. You are welcome to reply to the email if you have questions or a comment. Or say hi. I would love to hear from you.
Press a long vine through the wreath from one end to another making sure you protect the tendrils.
Weave in a second long vine next to that.
Gather the long dangling vines on one end and twist them together.
Do the same on the other end so that you have two long twisted vine ends.
Bring the dangling vines over and weave them together over the top to craft the handle. Take another fresh vine and wind this around and over the top of the handle but again make sure that the end extends so that it can be in the water below. The first four vines will dry giving the basket strength and the last vines that cover it will continue to stay hydrated giving it a continuously Spring fresh look.
Add water to the display container and place the vine display basket on a decorative container and manipulate the cut end so that it will be submerged in the water.
The basket will also be strong enough to carry the succulent if you would prefer (for instance as a flower girl bouquet) especially if you allow the vine to dry. But for this design we are going to make it last.
Place the succulent on the display container with the cut end above the water line.
Complete the design by gluing in some kalanchoe flowers and tendrils.
Add in more vines to drape over the succulent...
And finish the design with a few dew drop crystals...
See the Tutorial below for more detailed instructions on how and why I add these with a pin.
And tiny hidden decorative Easter eggs, if you want to.
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Tutorials
For my design I wanted the wreath to look wind blown so I added a few loosely woven twigs into the weave. I also wanted to emphasize the autumn colours so I added a twirling...
Most stems, twigs and even sturdier branches can be bend into shapes. It takes practice and more than a bit of patience. The main idea is to slowly manipulate the branch without...
It's sometimes difficult to place a tiny crystal or bead exactly where you want it.
Cut and bend flat wire (or any other wire you choose) into a “U” shape to follow the shape of your head. Similar to an Alice band
Cover a mask shape with moss and succulents for a long wearing mask
Great way to use all the autumn leaves you collect on walks during the season. Slowly build up the leaf rosette and let the leaves dry before adding a few more.
An armature to display a lovely surprise orchid that developed on the long spike just after the other flowers started to fade.
This looks spectacular but it is the easiest composite flower to make
Split (but don't cut) a few gladiolus flowers to spiral in a vase
The trick of this Tutorial is to create a flat top platform to display Spring blossom twigs- the way it would look on moss in a forest.
Related Designs
My Spring/Easter design and the introduction article about my floral journey written by the editor, Nina Tucknott in the latest issue of Flora Magazine.
Gorgeous Aquilegia vulgaris spring flower... with it's own springy thing!
My article and succulent floral crown design featured in the spring issue of DIY Weddings Magazine
Design Inspiration Video: Take a few twigs, snippets of air plants and succulents and combine both traditional wire and tape techniques with more contemporary methods to embed a...
An Autumn Equinox design that captures the moment before the spectacular colour burst of autumn floats around again
Up-cycle the inner plastic ring from a roll of floral tape to make a wrist corsage. This design was also featured in the Italian floral design magazine Blossom Zine
This orchid developed at the very end of a long stem... right as the rest of the flowers started to die back so I made a special armature to display the cut stem.
My article and Japanese paper flower armature design featured in the March issue of The Academy Leader- Academy of Floral Design, published by the The Floral Art Society of New...
An early Spring design with a twist on using an old favourite: composite flowers.