Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Skeleton eyeball blossoms
- 25 October 2017
- click to send Christine a smile
For this Tutorial you will need a few Skeleton hydrangea florets. See below for detailed instructions.
Place a length of Styrofoam on a working surface
Cut the florets into petals. Soak a few skeleton hydrangea petals in bleach. Keep an eye on it though if it is soaked for too long it simply melts away.
Cut wire at a sharp angle
You will need two wires per blossom. Place it with the sharp ends pointing up.
Combine the wires by twisting it, leaving a dramatic "v" at the sharp ends.
Cut some seeded Eucalyptus. You will need two cones per blossom.
Pierce the cone with the sharp end of the wire. Add another Eucalyptus cone to the other end.
Place the wire in the Styrofoam so that it stands up making it easier to finish the blossom.
Finish all the wires.
Lift the hydrangea from the bleach.
Place the petals on a plastic lined working surface. Blot with a paper towel and carefully lift once dry.
Glue four petals to a wire
Gently cup the petals between your fingers to shape while the glue set.
Add petals to all the wires. I found it easiest to work on the front most one and then swap it with the back most one so that I don't accidentally bump into the fragile petals.
Give each blossom some personality by shaping the wire with the Eucalyptus eyeballs with pliers.
Simply bend and curve it at a curious angle.
Paint a white dot on each eyeball...
Then add a black dot. Again think of the personality of each blossom. If you curved the wire in a certain way make the focus of the eyeball follow it. This is important for placement in the design.
Each blossom now have a character... even this slightly quirky one over here.
Wrap the wire in florist tape.
Wrap two long wires with tape, one as a stem and the other...
... to shape into tendrils.
See the Tutorial below for more detailed instructions on how to shape wire tendrils.
Carefully tape the tendrils and blossoms to the stem wire
Shape the stem wire and add to the design. With the pliers gently twist each eyeball blossom to look at something of interest. Place some drinking straw water tubes (Tutorial below) in some places for the blossoms to stare at.
It is important if you add something in your design that it should look perfectly happy there. Make them chat or even better admire the flowers.
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Tutorials
Use the skeleton petals of hydrangeas to create blossoms
Remove the pulp from leaves so that only the vain framework remain
Curl the wire at irregular intervals to create a natural wire tendril similar to that of a passion fruit plant
Made from dried cherry twigs and a skeleton leaf.
Remove the pulp from the papery pod (sepal) covering the little berry of Chinese lantern plant so that only the vain framework remain
You can use any type of paper to make flowers. I use tissue paper, Crêpe paper, cardboard, newsprint and coffee filters (new and used) to make sweet peas, carnations, paper...
When you need to keep a tiny stem hydrated this is just what you need.
Favourite Flowers
Hydrangea, when cultivated as a cut flower rather as a plant it is often revered to as Hortensia
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Barely there skeleton blossoms with Eucalyptus eyes for my Halloween design... Oh! and a Willow Paddle, which probably should have been the main Tutorial... but... well...
Oh my... a corn leaf mummy head for autumn... looking ahead to Halloween styling.
Take a handful of grass... but then add just enough design to make it interesting.
An Autumn Equinox design that captures the moment before the spectacular colour burst of autumn floats around again
