Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Pin Protea foliage into a curl
- 22 March 2017
- click to send Christine a smile
- and more
Cut short lengths of wire to pin the leaves
Choose something round to roll the leaves over to make it easier to roll a lot of the leaves. For my design I chose a plastic test tube because I also wanted to fit the tubes through the leaves to conceal.
Roll the leaf around the tube
Remove the tube
And secure with the wire pin
Leaf curl ready to design with
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
I purchase a huge roll of sisal string to use... sometimes as string, but mostly I unravel it for the fibers
Wrap thin, glue soaked sisal fibers around a balloon or ball to create a barely there armature
The sturdy Protea leaves holds it shape even when dried when pinned into place
Customize sisal armatures by adding a wire skeleton and interesting bits of plant material
Peel away the tepals and bracts from a Protea flower hear to make a large composite flower orb
This is a fast and easy way to hang test tubes in a design
Up-cycle a pot scrubber to get a huge roll of very pretty copper wire
Curl the wire at irregular intervals to create a natural wire tendril similar to that of a passion fruit plant
When in doubt, always give your armature three legs. Two legs are simply not enough and four legs will wobble if it is even slightly off balance.
Using fruit, berries, flowers, leaves and grasses to naturally stain design details for floral art relies on the same techniques as using paint or any other dye.
Apart from avoiding the noise popping a balloon makes this is also a less violent way to deflate a balloon when you make Papier Mache items
Related Designs
A design demonstration and workshop at the Floral Trends Design group in South Africa exploring how we emulate nature’s best biological ideas to solve our modern day design...
Looking back at the preparations and my Biomimicry design demonstration and workshop at the Floral Trends Design Group in South Africa
A sticky shooting star made with gypsophila stems and fluffy dandelion seeds
To commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee and the 20th Anniversary of Friends of Government House Gardens Society a Horticultural event was hosted in the gardens and...
My RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2015 Limelight Floral Art Design. My Limelight design was inspired by a slice of lime. But I wanted it to look like it was spun by a butterfly. I used...
