My Creative Workbook

Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman

It's High Time for Tea: from craft to art, taking a delicious floral journey with wire techniques

This was my last two designs for my It's High Time for Tea Floral Craft and Art Demonstration at The Capilano Flower Arranging Club meeting

I demonstrated three floral craft cake designs and three matching floral art designs using the same design techniques and I incorporated my three techniques, where possible, in the other designs just to show how versatile they are.

Floral craft cakes demonstration

Wire can give a design mechanical support, adds length to stems, support weak or delicate stems and adds decorative and structural details to a design. It is also used for tying, cross knotting, wrapping, bending hooks, binding and so much more!

My Floral Craft design: Twig Cupcakes

Floral Craft Twig Cupcakes

I chose bind wire to attach the twigs to metal rings for my wire twig cupcakes and funnel shaped pick-up-sticks design

Bind the twigs with bind wire.

The bind wire (a paper covered wire) creates a strong and stable armature without stealing any of the attention away from the plant material

Weave a ribbon through the twigs

and weave a ribbon through the twigs

My Floral Art Design: Funnel shaped pick-up-sticks armature

Twig funnel design

For my floral art funnel shaped pick-up-sticks design I demonstrated the value of a stable wired construction...

Stacked twigs design

... by finishing the design with twigs and lilies that are just loosely laid over the design, or hanged from twigs with forks in cut like a natural hook, or suspended with a wire hook

Lilies and twigs

None of the twigs were fixed to the original armature.

Break the straight twig lines with willow

As I build up the design it becomes more and more stable...

The loosely suspended twigs form a supportive unit resting on the wired funnel foundation

... until all the loosely suspended twigs form a supportive unit resting on the wired funnel foundation.

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

Tutorials

30 January 2013 Weaving ribbon through a twig structure

A great way to dress up baskets or other twig structures

30 January 2013 Twig liners for floral cupcakes

Wire a few twigs around wire spirals to cover the test tubes for tiny floral cups

30 January 2013 Funnel shaped pick-up-sticks armature

By making a very secure armature, it is possible to stack and suspend loose twigs on top of it building on the stable foundation

1 March 2011 Paper covered Wire

Cover the wire with the raffia

18 January 2012 Butterfly feeler hooks for swinging test tubes

I don't always want to wire my test tubes into the design. I like to create a bit of movement by simply hooking the tubes to gently swing.

2 January 2011 Lilies

How to keep Lilies in bud for longer. Removing the pollen. Stringing a Lily Garland.

26 April 2011 Natural stem hook to hang plant material from

Side stems of branches can be used as hooks to hang floral material in a design.

30 March 2012 Keep pod shaped flowers in bud for longer

Sometimes you want to keep flowers in tight bud for as long as possible to suit your design

22 May 2012 Bite and snap a sturdy twig

Break the sturdy twig on the scribe line.

23 March 2012 Drying Physalis sepals

Every Autumn we see the beautiful Physalis pods everywhere but they are easy to dry and preserve to use year round.

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.

6 September 2011 T-Wiring

A t-wire create a stem to insert grass or twigs to shadow a design without laying flat

30 March 2012 Keep pod shaped flowers in bud for longer

Sometimes you want to keep flowers in tight bud for as long as possible to suit your design

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.

Favourite Flowers

Lilium

Lily

Physalis

Chinese lantern, cape gooseberry, Peruvian cherry, Inca berry

Related Designs

14 January 2013 It is High Time for Tea. Floral Craft and Art demonstration at the The Capilano Flower Arranging Club meeting

This is an overview of the Floral Art and Craft Demonstration at The Capilano Flower Arranging Club. I demonstrated three floral craft cake designs and three matching floral art...

1 June 2016 The ties that Bind

Bind a lily to create a trumpet shape as it opens

12 July 2017 Sparkler

A radiating twig design

2 October 2019 Cross-hatch a Shadow Bright Autumn

A clever trick borrowed from art techniques to add dimension to a bright and colourful Autumn floral design.

5 February 2020 What it’s all about

A bundle of twigs armature to create a pretend Spring design for a snowy morning.

18 August 2021 At Play

A quick-to-do-but-looks-impressive way to display a beautiful cut garden vine for an effortless summer design.

18 December 2009 Cardboard Cup Cake Tower

White and lime green cake stand for chocolate muffins