My Creative Workbook

Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman

The horror of flower dye and a spider that sits beside her

Fill a apothecary jar with water

Fill a apothecary jar with water...

Arrange your frightfully dyed flowers deep in the water

Arrange your frightfully dyed flowers deep in the water.

With the flower buds poking into the lid to keep them in place

With the flower buds poking into the lid to keep them in place.

Set the vase aside for a few minutes to allow bubbles to appear

Set the vase aside while weaving the spider to allow bubbles to appear to give the impression of a specimen jar.

Design note: ordinary tap water will give you medium sized bubbles
Carbonated water (soda water or seltzer water) will give you sparkling water with larger bubbles
and for no bubbles you can use boiled water (cooled down) or distilled water.

Weave a sphere for the spider head

For the spider I wove two spheres...

this Tutorial is rather long so I added the Tutorial for weaving spheres below.

Book readers if you want to scale up the design and weave a HUGE spider you can find a suitable How To on page 186... with flowers in the spider body.
For more information about my book: The Effortless Floral Craftsman

Weaving two grass tips to dangle out as fangs

Weaving two grass tips to dangle out as fangs...

Use a long blade of grass to attach the two grass balls

Use a long blade of grass to attach the two grass balls...

By interweaving the grass through the body and the head spheres

... by interweaving the grass through the body and the head spheres

Pull the two balls together so that they sit tightly to form the spider body

Pull the two balls together so that they sit tightly to craft the spider.

This is where you add your spider's personality. Is it poised to jump? Or relaxing in the lazy autumn sun?

Reshape the head so that the fangs add to the personality

Reshape the head so that the fangs add to the personality.

Use a pin to rip the grass into four thinner sections

Use a pin to rip the grass into four thinner sections.

Thread a blade of grass through the smaller sphere.

Could be why spiders are so super scary... but the legs go through the head part.... Thread a ripped section of a blade of grass through the smaller sphere.

And a second blade next to that

And a second blade next to that...

And then leg three and four

And then leg three and four.

Attach the spider to the side of the vase

You can absolutely glue the spider to the side of the container... but what if you can reposition it to move about every so often... It's Halloween after all!

Slip a small corsage magnet between the woven belly of the spider

Slip a small corsage magnet between the woven belly of the spider...

Secure it with a small bit of glue and conceal

Secure the magnet with a small bit of glue and conceal it by weaving in another blade of grass.

Place the partner magnet inside the vase and the spider on the outside

Place the partner magnet inside the vase and the spider on the outside.

Reposition the spider by gently moving the woven body

Reposition the spider by gently moving the woven body.

Bend the legs

Bend the legs...

If you need a guide for how and where to shape the legs I have added a picture in this week's email as a tip. Make sure you are signed up to receive each week's email tip the moment the design is ready for you to view. The sign up is below this post.

Position the long legs

Position the long legs...

Cut the legs shorter

and cut the legs shorter....

Design tip: use the sharpest knife or snippers you have for this.

Use a pin to place the shiny dew drop crystal spider eyes

Use a pin to place the shiny dew drop crystal spider eyes.

See the Tutorial below for detailed instructions on how to use a pin to position the sticky crystals.

To move the spider:

Gently reposition the spider every now and again

Gently reposition the spider every now and again so that it crawls around the vase...

And rearrange his legs to match

... and rearrange his legs to match.

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

Tutorials

6 July 2022 Weave a grass sphere to keep the long flower stems neatly in place on a bud vase

Both pretty and pretty effective. Keep the flowers exactly where you want them by weaving a stopper for your bud vase.

8 July 2015 Using a pin to place tiny dew drop crystals

It's sometimes difficult to place a tiny crystal or bead exactly where you want it.

17 July 2012 Guacamole Green Coiled Grass Chameleon

My Chameleon is mono-botanical. Made from coiled grass

5 January 2011 Palm leaf Hopper-flies (grasshoppers and butterflies)

Weave grasshoppers or butterflies (or fireflies) from palm leaves

1 October 2012 Weaving a ball shaped Dew-drop Catcher from grass

Weave a sphere from grass

8 May 2012 Nestled grass pebble

Weave a grass pebble for flowers to nestle in

31 October 2018 Spider-mum

Craft a spider from twigs and a chrysanthemum

28 October 2020 Arachnis Gerbera-petal-legicus

The easiest Gerbara disk floret spider... ever!

29 September 2011 Twig and skeleton leaf Stick Insect

Made from dried cherry twigs and a skeleton leaf.

7 October 2015 Magnetic grass bubbles to reposition under water

When suspending items under water it is convenient to add a tiny magnet so that you can reposition it if the water distorts the lines of your design

28 October 2015 Besom Broom

The word ‘Besom’ derives from the old English ‘besma’ meaning ‘bundle of twigs’.

30 October 2019 Bat Skeleton crafted from twigs

Eerie! Because you use what is there already in the twigs this skeleton looks rather... realistic!

31 October 2017 Physalis Pod Stick-man

Glue twigs into a stick man for a Halloween design

14 April 2021 Fuzzy Willow Caterpillar in a buttercup and jasmine vine swirl

As in… Pussy willow catkins caterpillar… that is super fuzzy.

Related Designs

26 October 2022 Arachnis Phobicus

A fun woven spider for Halloween decorating

15 March 2023 Hop… Lots!

Beautiful blossoms don’t NEED much to make it into a lovely design. But the start of Spring might just inspire you to add a bit much… just because it makes you happy.

14 June 2023 Because I am beautiful!

It deserves a bowl all of it's own... right? I am (of course!) talking about these spectacular little sweet peas called King Tut. Not much else is needed. But add a cute little...

20 September 2023 Did you see that!?!

Take a handful of grass... but then add just enough design to make it interesting.

1 November 2023 That day after Halloween feeling

Time to cut down vines... and enjoy them a bit longer in a Halloween display.

28 October 2020 Magic Spell Number 614: How to make absolutely any task you need to do fun

A hint of a wreath table top design for pre-Halloween decorating.

29 September 2011 Pick-Up Sticks

A twig and stick design with sweet dumpling pumpkins and rosary vine (Ceropegia woodii). I also made a cherry twig and skeleton leaf Stick Insect

28 October 2015 On Pumpkin Coloured Days

Create a besom broom to sweep up those Autumn leaves

30 October 2019 There once was a bat called Tequila, a Halloween story

An all plant zero waste, levitating, twig (with just a splatter of autumn leaves, a breath of spiderweb and float of roots) Halloween decoration with an eerie bat skeleton made...

14 April 2021 a Yay! You

A tiny Spring detail to add to a cute little floral design.

20 October 2021 Flying Lessons

An easy get ahead with Halloween decoration that will last.

1 October 2012 How to catch a dew drop:

Weave a sphere from grass to catch a precious and exquisite and perfect glistening early autumn dew drop

3 June 2015 A watcha call it

Weave a sphere armature

15 April 2015 Bowled Over

Weave a sphere armature to complement delicate oncidium orchiods

14 August 2019 For a longer lasting Summer

A creative way to keep foliage hydrated for a cool, water filled summer design.

26 June 2019 “Ok wow”

A design so fine you can easily miss it... if it were not for the interwoven pebbles catching your eye.