My Creative Workbook

Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman

Stabilizing sticks for dried or fresh flowers

This is a great alternative to floral foam. Create a large and full design without bulkiness and weight by stabilizing the flowers on glued sticks.

It is also a very economical and environmentally sound way of creating a large and luxurious design, filled with flowers. You will need a lot less flowers to cover the surface, can use older, dried hydrangeas in the bottom layer of the design and you can re-use the armature, dried flowers and test tubes. I even up-cycled a plastic pipe to make all the "test tubes". See Tutorial below.

Glue the dried flowers on to a reed or stick and glue to the bottom of the design.jpg

Glue the dried flowers on to a reed or stick and glue that to the bottom of the design.

Continue to build up the design with dried flowers.

Continue to build up the design with dried flowers.

Create depth by placing some of the flowers higher to shadow the shorter ones.

Create depth by placing some of the flowers higher to shadow the shorter stems.

Hold each stick in place for a few seconds for the hot glue to dry.

Hold each stick in place for a few seconds for the hot glue to dry.

Cover the design with dry flowers.

The dry flowers will serve as a flower frog and will stabilize the design when I add the heavier fresh flowers.

Glue sticks or reeds to create long stems for small test tubes.

Glue a stick or reed to the bottom of a test tube to create a long stem. Place a small bit of glue on the end of the stick and glue to the bottom of the design armature.

My design will stand upright so the test tubes are all at an angle to prevent the water from running out.

Slip the test tube on a stick between all the dried flowers.

Slip the test tube on a stick between all the dried flowers.

Fill all the gaps with test tubes.

Fill all the gaps with test tubes.

Fill the test tubes with water.

Fill the test tubes with water.

Dress the design with a layer of fresh flowers.

Dress the design with a layer of fresh flowers, a few lichen covered sticks and butterflies

Whisper butterflies cut from Acetate.

The water in the test tubes keeps the flowers hydrated for days. The flowers will slowly drink the water and by the time the test tubes are empty the flowers will also be perfectly dry and preserved!

Every week I add a new design with related tutorials. Be sure to subscribe to receive an email notification with design inspiration.

Tutorials

10 July 2012 Longer stems for dried flowers

Give dried hydrangeas (or other dried flowers) a longer stem to make it easier to work with.

22 April 2011 Test tube on a stick

Include a single floret (such as an orchid) or bundle a few weaker stems (such as lily of the valley) into an arrangement or hand tie by wiring a test tube to a stick.

4 January 2011 Drinking straw "test tubes"

When you need to keep a tiny stem hydrated this is just what you need.

30 May 2012 Drying Hydrangeas: Fast, Flat or Natural

Use all three methods to dry hydrangeas to get three very different textures to use in design work.

10 July 2012 Bark covered heart

Cover cardboard with bark to create a heart shaped log

16 August 2011 Fast way to fill a lot of test tubes in awkward places

I do not believe in arranging flowers without a water source of some kind. I want my flowers to remain as beautiful for as long as possible and I often get quite creative to...

3 January 2011 Syringe with tube

Easy way to fill test tubes and easiest way to remove water from a vase

10 July 2012 Whisper butterflies

Acetate is the clear plastic mostly used for packaging design. It is thicker than cellophane and holds its shape much better.

Related Designs

10 July 2012 Sticktoitness

Glue a heart shaped design made from bark and wood.

2 September 2015 Happy Dance

Split a few bamboo sections to create a happy water source for miniature orchids

31 January 2018 Rock, don't Roll

Balance the heavy Protea flower head to lean against a rock.

19 June 2019 Club together

Last Wednesday I had such a flowery fun evening teaching a collaborative floral carpet workshop focusing on braiding and weaving ideas from my book the effortless floral craftsman...

19 June 2019 Magic Flying Floral Carpet Ride -Collaborative Workshop

Some picture highlights from our collaborative workshop that I taught focusing on braiding and weaving techniques to create a floral carpet design.

6 November 2019 Dance lessons from the Autumn leaves

A fun and easy contemporary floral design to display foraged autumn leaves and just a touch of flowers that can easily be replaced.