Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Tangle a wild wide web of Jasmine vine to suspend your flowers
- 2 August 2023
- click to send Christine a smile
My summer design strategy: the warmer the weather the deeper the water. A vine frog is just the thing! Fill a generous sized container with water.
Place a jasmine vine in the container.
Tangle in a second vine...
Design note: This is a great way to design with fresh vines. The water is deep enough to keep the new growth from wilting and the vine will continue to grow in the water... making it possible for you to use the vine in another design with the new tips now fully conditioned. You might even get roots on the vine!
Add the vines in one by one to make sure all the cut stem ends kick firmly against the bottom of the container. The tips can extend over the edge of the container. Also add the vines in so that you have little vine-rafts to suspend your flowers above the water. You can adjust the size of the supports to suit your flowers. Smaller flowers will need a denser support. Heavier flowers might even need an additional support so that it looks like it is floating above the water.
Book readers turn to page 141 where I give you a few more tips about designing and suspending flowers in water. For more information about my book:
The Effortless Floral Craftsman
Gently place the flowers on the vine tangle.
... but of course the vine continues to grow and will shift slightly. This week in our email I show you an easy, at a glance way to check whether the support is shifting and you need to adjust the flower to maintain the design. The sign up is below the post if you want to join the conversation (or just say hi... or get a notification the moment the new design is ready for you to view)
Add in a few more vines to drape over the flowers and some dew drop crystals to finish the design.
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Tutorials
It's sometimes difficult to place a tiny crystal or bead exactly where you want it.
Weave tiny vine wreaths on the leave stems of a stripped Wisteria vine
Create a barely there armature with sturdy end of season vines.
Flowers naturally float and you will need some kind of sinker to keep them suspended under water.
Create a shallow puddle in a larger container to keep your flowers in place.
Water... lots of water- that is the answer to designing flower arrangements that survive the summer heat.
Float flowers in a bottle by giving each flower their own little bubble wrap raft-skirt.
Tiny stems are often also delicate stems... place your cut flowers directly in a small glass of water. A perfect fit for this basket.
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Not only is water designs wonderfully refreshing to make... it is also wonderfully refreshing for your flowers.
As in… Pussy willow catkins caterpillar… that is super fuzzy.
A zero waste and sustainable floral design solution to keep your flowers exactly where you want them without using floral foam.
Suspend flowers over a water filled container by weaving a natural grid.
Favourite Flowers
Phalaenopsis, Moth orchid
Related Designs
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