My Creative Workbook

Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman

The last Vine Wreath

Every designer knows how to stretch their supplies. We use and re-use our dried plant material until our fellow designers feel like hiding it from us. I formed such an attachment to my vine wreaths. I made about 20 wreaths (from really large to tiny small) in 2007 out of grape vines from a wine farm nearby.

50th Anniversary of the South African Orchid Society at the Cape Town Convention Centre

The wreaths made its debut in my first big competition the 50th Anniversary of the South African Orchid Society at the Cape Town Convention Centre.

Detail of Veiled Sunshine design

I stacked the vine wreaths to shape a basket- small inside growing larger to the outside

FuFeeling Funky Competition Design.

I turned them upside down for a competition the year after entitled "Feeling Funky"

Mount Crumpit Christmas tree made from wreaths

And then even later that year- with the help of fake snow and chocolates it became our Christmas tree. Looks a bit like Mount Crumpit from Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch stole Christmas!

Intimate dinner for two

The larger wreaths returned, although cut open and twisted in my Floral Sushi "Intimate dinner for two" design last year. Helderberg Flower Club: Floral Fantasy

Sushi dinner detail

Little twigs cut from the vine wreath served as Chopsticks and sushi bits

Since then I had to cut a few up for twigs, gave a few as gifts and this is it…

Vine Flower Frog

My last vine wreath: A twig flower frog.

Keeping the stems of Lisianthus and Lilies neatly in place.

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

Tutorials

1 November 2011 Weaving a twig wreath

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...

11 February 2015 Stripping foliage from weaving stems

Remove foliage from stems to weave with

Favourite Flowers

Lilium

Lily

Eustoma

Lisianthus, Texan Poppy, Texas Bluebell, Tulip Gentian, Prairie Gentian

Protea

Protea (but each variety also has a common name)

Rosa

Rose

Cymbidium

Cymbidium, Boat Orchid

Related Designs

11 April 2011 Veiled Sunshine:50th Anniversary of the South African Orchid Society at the Cape Town Convention Centre.

Bright and sunny cymbidium orchids and roses, lilies, lisianthus and pincushions

6 November 2013 This is the Fragrance of November

Weave a wreath to thread a dome for an Autumn leaf design

26 August 2015 Bent

Weave a wreath from sweetpea stems and tendrils

2 September 2015 Happy Dance

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

21 October 2015 Watch the leaves turn

Roll autumn leaves to create a wreath

4 May 2016 Ring-a-round

Open a vine wreath to create a spiral twig armature around a glass container

3 August 2016 Practice

Weave a willow bird nest

17 August 2016 Strangeness

Weave a wreath to display air plants on

7 September 2016 You are all invited!

My article and Willow Crown design featured in DIY Weddings Magazine

19 October 2016 There are Octobers

Autumn wreath

16 November 2016 All things Autumn (by which I mean all things chocolate): Snipped into Sections

This was the second design I did in my "All things Autumn (by which I mean all things chocolate)" floral art demonstration

8 March 2017 Piece of the forest

Standing roses upright in a shallow container

11 April 2017 Well… we did it again!

Blossoms and chocolates for Easter

27 September 2017 As tendrils tend to do

Curl a wreath with tendrils to create a twig-pumpkin

4 October 2017 Whipped up in the autumn breeze

Give a loosely woven wreath legs to stand on to hover lightly around a pumpkin

24 January 2018 How to make a stack of just enough:

Stack two vases to create a small gap at the side to keep a leaf upright

7 February 2018 Up around the bend

Bend Equisetum into curves to wire into an open wreath shape

19 September 2018 Before I show you my book- let me show you my book

… and why we call this the special craftsmanship edition

24 April 2019 Put aside

Urgh… my glass cake stand broke leaving me with a still beautiful, but now mismatched and extremely inspirational lid...

15 May 2019 Heard it through the grapevine?

Have you heard? I have wonderful news this week. Oh! and I also have this pretty grapevine armature shaped like the petals of an open rose to show you. But... Have you heard...

11 December 2019 A Very Merry eucalyptus bauble Christmas!

For this year's Christmas tree I wired and glued a wild and wintry twig armature... but... these little eucalyptus baubles are just the cutest!

11 March 2020 On-Spring-dium

A almost impossibly delicate oncidium (dancing lady) orchid wreath.

16 September 2020 The circle of making new things:

A wreath armature design for early Autumn... this takes the split armature Tutorial I showed you last month a little bit further.

28 July 2021 Linked This Way

A fun way to elevate a few bud vases into a display.

15 September 2021 Blowing this way and that

Craft an arch armature to display those early autumn treasures.

3 November 2021 Coppepeppepepper wreath

Wire dried pepper berries to a wreath with super fancy flat wire (okay... it's the humble wire from a copper pot scrubber but it still looks fancy!)

14 September 2022 Overgrown S-Autum-mer Swirl

Designing for somewhere not still summer not yet autumn weather...

2 November 2022 bonfire

A final rosy burst of fiery autumn colour.

1 March 2023 … ish

An early... ish Spring basket glued from blossom twigs

24 May 2023 everywhere IS nature

A lush wreath that remains green so that you can design once... and cut and cut and place your violas to make sure you have flowers all season long.

24 January 2024 I mean… really!?!

Using fresh twigs to bind a little twig platform to suspend the beautiful orchids from.

10 April 2011 Feeling Funky

I wove vine wreaths to form a pyramid, one just slightly larger than the next. In the natural cavities between the wreaths I placed the roses and lisianthus in plastic covered...

12 April 2011 Intimate Dinner For Two- Table Setting Competition Class

Floral Sushi Dinner, for two

30 March 2011 Garden Wreath Workshop and Demonstration

Contemporary Wreath Design demonstration as part of the Durbanville Garden Club's annual Garden Festival, Western Cape, South Africa