floraldesignmagazine

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Self Mage Netting for floral design

Have you ever made your own wire netting for your floral design?

Big enough for huge Dahlias

It was a fantastic effect and  even better it is bespoke, unique, original... all those words that mean awesome! I have spent the last week  creating 6 different styles, and arrangements  using netting I made myself and I don't think I will ever buy the commercial versions again. Not only is it fun, it is actually quite quick and incredibly, each version looked so different from the others.

soft and natural

I used grasses, and the great big hollow Equisetum reed for two of them, paper covered wire for another and pearls in another.

I did six in total for the DIY lessons in the DVD 'Self-made netting for floral design'.(click here to review)  including these ones which I will show you how to do...every detail revealed!You just have to have a go! Big enough for huge Dahlias, the idea is not original. I was inspired by the work of two Russian florists spotted at Alden Biesen in Belgium at this year's flower happening. Beautiful work that filled a room, that is included in the December edition of floral design magazine (click here to review )

All the flowers I used are from the floral design magazine  garden which is just full of Dahlias,

Self-made Netting For Floral Design

Lilies, Strelizia,Callas and Hydrangeas are all in flower at the moment. I wondered which to pick first! Click here to check out the DIY DVD and  join me in  becoming a netting expert.

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Creative flower arranging made easy

Creative Flower Arranging Made Easy Special'  with floral design magazine is out now and you need to be very excited about it.

Why? Can you image being taken to see some of the world's best florists' exhibition pieces? Then go into a room for a private lesson with another  flower arranger who shows you how to use the techniques and methods you have just seen to make a flower arrangement you can put in your home or flower shop?

You can do that 18 times in this  exclusive edition, 18 different arrangements , 18 different styles, 17 different teachers - all waiting for you! Magnificent!

The list is long: bottles, beeswax, string, yarn, wool, cane, veneer, self-made netting, fabric, plaster of Paris, plaiting, pinning, wheat, plastic laminate... if you haven't included all these things in your flower arrangements lately you are in for a HUGE treat!

You can read online or download  with massive edition of floral design magazine by clicking here.. and its only $8...WOW now that is value for money.

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DIY Christmas candlestick

A Christmas Candelabra that is as tall as you want it to be, that you can make yourself and no-one else will have one like it - sounds fun and fabulous doesn't it. Robin Van Nuffelen designed this one featured in floral design magazine's Christmas Special (click here to purchase) and I have always loved the idea.

 A small tree was due to be cut out in the floral design garden so  while a

Cut the wood into rings

man with a chainsaw was in the area, I asked if he could cut it down slice by slice. Can you imagine the look I got! But  he did and I got my rings. You could do the same thing with a smaller, taller  branch - as I said the size is up to you.  If you find a large branch with 2 thick side branches you would end up with the 3 candle candelabra as Robin has.

Robin kept the rings in strict order and nailed or glued them into place.

mix up the slices for a different effect

I  am more inclined to mix mine up for a really interesting  set of ledges. 

Either way  use hot glue, carpenter's PVA wood glue or small nails to  attach each slice to the one below. That way you can move  each layer sideways from the slice underneath to get the diagonal effect.

You could also  drill a hole through them all and thread them on a metal spike if you don't want to be bothered getting it all to balance unaided. Have a go and try the idea and there are lots more in  that Christmas Special... click here to download it.

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Oranges for breakfast- to drink,eat and arrange.

Orange marmalade, orange juice and a breakfast arrangement using Oranges all from the floral design magazine garden's Orange tree greeted 4 guests at the floral design B&B on Sunday morning.

It was fun creating the arrangement with the 10 minutes I had to spare and it was simple, easy and effective.

Oranges from the garden

I cut the oranges so they still had some leaves on them and stacked them inside a very clean large glass vase.

Back inside, a plastic dish (which the DVDs come in but anything will do if it fits in the top) was filled with floral foam.

Adding the dish and floral foam

I shaped it like a weird mountain top with a knife and rubbed it with my hands to get it smooth and added water.You could glue the dish on to the top with hot glue. I didn't, as it was sitting  happily and I wanted to use the oranges after the guests left! They also transpire and if no vent is left the glass will fog up overnight.

Warp the container with a leaf

An Aspidistra leaf from the garden was wrapped around the dish to hide it and pinned back into the floral foam with a U shaped piece of wire. I used two leaves to  completely cover it.

Add Monstera leaves

Next step was to add the two huge Monstera leaves, one up above to shelter the arrangement, and one cascading down over the vase.

Add the herbs

Fill in the rest of the floral foam with herbs. I used  Mint and Parsley as those fresh smells were ideal for a morning meal and grow in abundance in the garden.

All ready for the morning

To finish I skewered three Oranges on toothpicks and placed them into the floral foam as well.  This brought the colour of the  oranges in the vase up into the top.

Small easy peel mandarins in a glass dish beside the design was an invitation for the guests to fill their pockets as they were about to  bike the Hauraki Rail Trail after they left us.

Ready to ride

More about the B&B here

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DIY flower arrangement from the garden

A floral gift that was transportable, required no attention on arrival, used garden flowers and was fast was what I needed  on Saturday for a relative's 70th birthday party. With  over 100 people invited the  hostess would have no time to put flowers in a vase (if she owned any!) and she  does not have a flower garden so a potted plant was also inappropriate...and it had to have plenty of WOW!

First to find a container that I did not want back- into the kitchen cupboards  to find a cake tin that was past using to bake cakes.

The start of the DIY arrangement

I filled it with two blocks of wet floral foam cut to size, and went for a walk in the floral design garden.

Garden planned like an arrangement

The garden is designed like a flower arrangement with contrasting foliage placed together. I picked New Zealand Flax, Aralia and Elegia which all grow together beside the Port Wine Magnolia . Of course by  arranging in the garden you only pick exactly what you need.

Adding the first foliage

Four Aralia leaves went to the corners of the  cake tin and two Elegia soaring above in the middle started it off. I wanted it tall  and thin so it didn't take up too much space on a table full of finger food yet had that WOW. The Elegia was tied up with wire into  bunches to make it tidier.

Adding the flowers

The first Gladioli of the season were out so they went in next. With plenty of flowers still to open they would last ages. They also set the colour scheme- red/yellow/orange... so Flax with yellow streaks went in next in big loops, help in place with U shaped wire pins.

loops of New Zealand Flax

Between the Aralia leaves I added Geranium leaves to cover the floral foam. As I worked I walked around the arrangement, as it was going to be seen from all sides so  from every angle it had to look the same.

Adding the Roses

 A few Graham Thomas Roses were out so in they went next , under the Flax loops, and then the orange Tritonia around the loops.

Adding the Spring flowers Tritonia

This was all about filling in the gaps, adding  flowers that were out, and keeping within the colour scheme.

Filling in the gaps

Calendulas and sprigs of Coprosma were the last of the plant material  to go in, again because of their colour and because they were flowering at the same time in the garden. To finish the personal touch...

The personal touch for the birthday party

I made a 7 and 0 out of gold wire just by looping them around my finger, and pinned them on to the Flax loop in two places.

We were ready to go... it fitted behind  the passenger seat in the car, and  got  to the destination in one piece- easily. I walked  in, plonked it on the coffee table and  yes... I got it..that wonderful word...'WOW!"

If you want ot see more of my ideas for quick, easy floral gifts, I put them on a DVD... Click here for 'Easy Floral Gifts"...as step by step lessons. If you prefer a magazine download click here to review "Arrange the flowers of Spring" and you will find lessons in lots of  different styles.

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DIY idea for floral Christmas Candles

Decor for celebrations doesn't have to take forever to be impressive. Candles, Christmas decorations, a  few Flax or Aspidistra leaves and a bunch of Chrysanthemums is all you need...well almost.

 The technique has been around for a while (Part of the  DVD: Manipulating leaves Volume 1) and it continues to be beautiful and rewarding (in my opinion of course!)  Five members from the Hamilton Floral Art Club created this piece and it has secrets... it is  5 separate designs pushed close together. Throw in as many Obowls and floral foam as you need for the length of your table.

Attach the candle with sellotape and skewers

Start with wet floral foam in each plastic bowl so it is above the rim by  2 cms.(1")

Use sellotape or florists' tape to attach 4 skewers to a pillar candle. Cut the skewers to  the appropriate length so they go right down into the floral foam, but are not right up the side of the candle.

The candle should be really firmly held in place with this method.

U pins hold the rolls in place

  Push one end of the Aspidistra or New Zealand Flax into the floral foam anywhere and curl it into a roll. Where it touches the floral foam insert a U shaped pin. Go right out to the edges as well as  close to the candle. Make  it all loopy and airy so you leave room for the flowers later. Use 5-6 pieces of Flax or Aspidistra (and if your Aspidistra is too wide, split it down the middle.)

By the time you have finished your bowl should look like this. If you can still see the top of the skewers either make your loops bigger to hide them or cut them shorter.

Place the flowers in the gaps

Add flowers such as Chrysanthemums, Roses, Carnations or Gerberas, in the gaps and any Christmas/appropriate decorations you want to finish the  design. Put them all together, right up close so they are having a cuddle and light the candles...Awesome!   A great job done by the Hamilton Floral Art Club members.

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DIY event decorations

For wedding ideas or modern flower arrangements for your  DIY party consider using the Strelitzia. Commonly called Bird of Paradise, it is a sensational flower that is all ready to go, in its party colours of bright orange, blue and red.

  Murray Howell a florist from Te Puke in New Zealand created this example  for a  feature using Strelitzias for a DIY party in floral design magazine. Placing one Strelitzia flower in a large martini glass with an Anthurium and  coloured water crystals is genius!  In the bathroom or at the bar, place it by a mirror to get  double the effect.

  Strelitzias are easy to grow if you know they come from South Africa. That means a warm spot and good drainage. We get 5-6 frosts a year and they survive well  in the floral design garden.

The Strelitzia flower (Bird of Paradise)

The Strelitzia flower  opens from a slit in the top of the bud. Usually there is more than one hidden away  in there and they come out one at a time, over several weeks.  Pull off the dead ones and the flower will look as new with the newer versions. Great if you are picking them.

  Coax more out  too. Using your finger as a hook,  put it in the pod and gently pull out any new flowers still in there.

In a vase Strelitzias will last weeks and they look brilliant teamed up with other large, tropical forms.

  Large leafed Strelitzia

       Check out the leaves. If they are like big paddles with a red vein down the middle you have found a  good plant for flower arranging. Pick the leaves, use them fresh and later  hang them in a warm spot to dry. They will naturally curl  into beautiful shapes and eventually go a wonderful golden brown.

Small leafed Strelitzia

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Wiring techniques that are awesome

I saw it and knew that this was going to be the highlight of my day on Wednesday. This exquisite little floral piece by the talented Pat Mercer was sitting on a show bench for the theme 'Buttons and Bows' But it wasn't that, that got me, it was the masterful wire craft that Pat had used to make the armature and stand. I just wanted to pick it up and take a better look- which is of course a big no no at floral art competitions.

Thinking about it later, I realised that Pat's design reflected the way wire craft  had morphed over the last 5 years since Gregor Lersch in Germany saw the potential of working with wire  and started taking workshops around the world.

Buttons, Bows and Roses

 Thursday and Friday were spent finding all the articles  we have published in floral design magazine in that time as international award winning florists have taken the ideas of Gregor and expanded, adapted and modified them. 

Seeing them all in the one place was AMAZING! Why? Because put together, I was looking at  a truly unique (and for me,) very exciting minimag that told it all- how to  do the  wire craft that Gregor invented as a mechanic, how others had used the techniques in fanastic award winning designs, how they had changed it  and whole new wire structures have emerged.

So here I am on Saturday morning finally writing  the blog, so pleased I took the time to assemble Wire Construction for Floral Design and buzzed byall the wire craft  possibilities I have still to explore myself.

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French classic style

The last of the Winter flower Camellias are still on the tree in the floral design garden and it is a shame these magnificent flowers aren't used more often...but there is a trick to making them last over a week without their heads falling off. 

All you need is two small pins!Turn the Camellia flower upside down and carefully hold the bloom in the palm of your hand with your thumb and forefinger gripping the calyx. Push the two pins into the calyx, to form a cross. 

Secure the head of a Camellia

The pins hold all the petals  in place and do the job of the calyx as it dries out. Magic! The only time this won't work is when the Camellia bloom is fully open and about to drop its petals anyway... so pick them  right up until they have reached that full bloom. 

And how did I know  many arrangers didn't know this trick? Because the other day I took some members of the Morrinsville Floral Art Club through  a few of the  flower arranging styles that are typically French and many brought garden grown Camellias.

A French classic created with Camellias

And this magnificent arrangement is what one of the groups created. It is mainly Camellias ranging in size from the truly enormous red ones to the tiny  pink varieties where the French would use Roses, Carnations, Lizianthus etc as you can see in the exhibition in Versailles, near Paris covered in the July edition of floral design magazine. 

So would you like to see how these Morrinsville Club members made their version of a French classic? Or better still, take the method and have a go yourself! 

Secure the large floral sphere

Roll a large ball of floral foam in a tray of water so the outside is soaked up to 3cm deep. Don't soak it fully as it will be too heavy to lift and there is no need as you are using short stemmed flowers. 

Fill an urn 1/3 full with old floral foam. Push 4 skewers into the sphere and push  it all into the old floral foam in the urn. This will secure the sphere snuggly into the urn. Now sort the flowers you have into sizes, from the largest to the smallest.

Add the biggest flower first

Place the largest Camellias in first, all over the sphere in a random way (after pinning the calyx on each one of course). Don't group them just put them all over the place.

Smaller Camellias next

Now add the next sized Camelliasplacing them in the gaps and putting 2 or 3 together in small groups. This is still random, you are not making a pattern.

You can see the Club members used two different varieties of Camellias for this stage but both were in the red colourings.

Fill in the gaps with even smaller flowers

The same size but in a complementary colour, they added other small groupings of Winter Roses (Hellebores) and finally  filled in  any remaining gaps with  the smallest  pnk and red flowers they had, which you can see in the finished result further up on this page.

The keys points...

keep the flowers very close together,

keep them all even in height when placing them in the sphere so you  end up with a huge flowery ball in an urn, and 

only use tiny bits of foliage if you must, to fill in very small gaps.

Like it? So did they! In fact they were smiling all afternoon. But do  go to the July edition of floral design to see it  done in France, by the French as  you will see  not just this but  many more sensational styles  too.

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Halloween can mean fab flowers

I've had a wonderful morning compiling a mini-mag..what is that? It's a short and sweet flipbook based on one theme, for a quick download, just $1 to buy, and a handy source of easy ideas. 

This new one is called Halloween and it has  me all twitchy about getting out the purple chiffon for October 31st. 

This original table setting is included in the new mini mag and don't you love it?  Purple, orange red and black was the colour scheme and it was part of a full house of Halloween decorations we covered a while ago in an edition of floral design that is now out of print. It really was too good a concept to have no longer available. 

The purple chiffon was just a length of fabric thrown over the table  to darken everything. 

Halloween means black branches

 Then branches painted black went down the middle of the table. The designer used tortured Willow  for the creepy effect and pushed yellow Singapore Orchids (in black painted flower phials) through the branches. 

Tea lights in red glasses, a scattering of purple feathers, and black cardboard witches' hats on every place setting and that was it. With the crystal glasses in place it was a fantastic effect.

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Christmas candles with attitude!

A modern approach for Christmas candles

It's always wonderful fun to take people outside their comfort zone and watch them move from anxiety, bewilderment and doubt to finally arrive at fun and satisfaction. It happened at the workshop with the Hamilton Floral Art Club when I presented some of the members with a plan to create a very modern table centrepiece using long white pillar candles. The technique was inspired by an article in floral design magazine in June 2013 about the  young UK florist Joe Massie and a demonstration where he introduced many new techniques to our readers. 

Starting to make the modern candle centrepiece

I collected some lovely long grass with fabulous seedheads from the side of the road ages ago and they had dried to a wonderful golden colour. It was easy to grab those, plus dry honesty seed heads, and some long pearl headed pins as part of what they needed.

They heated the pins  over a candle and pushed them all over the tall whiite pillar candles and then wired on the  grass stalks at an angle. While doing this they were still at the 'bewilderment' stage but I knew they would come right!

Then the hot glue gun came out and they added round plant forms, just to soften the visual tension of all those lines shooting off in all directions.

Adding the round elements around the linear material

As soon as they added the Honesty seedpods, small Magnolia grandiflora leaves, small golden Christmas baubles and  tiny white spheres the club members were starting to have fun! Yeah! That is always a relief!! By now there was much discussion about the elements and principles of floral design and  so the white polystyrene spheres were added to bring the  colour of the candle into the plant material.

Finished and fabulous

Then they were finished. Lined up close together along the middle of a table with a black table cloth they really did look cool as did the smiles on  the designers' faces. What a shame they only got to take home the candle they had brought as the candles looked so much nicer all lined up with  each other.

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Floral Pillar candle take 1

Having dinner outside a petrol station at 10pm last night in a tiny country town in New Zealand was actually a great experience as the meat pies were awesome... sounds weird but  the event I had just left was a demonstration was for the Hamilton Floral Art Club who meet at night.

  The theme was 'candle  designs from around the world' and with the Christmas edition of floral design magazine just out, it was an easy evening to plan. 

  I just had to include Russia and the amazing work of Mila Schumann. She introduced this idea in the magazine's October Christmas Special   giving the ilusion of a pillar candle decorated around the middle with flowers.

The secret construction revealed

But ha! So wrong!  Look at the naked 'candle' and it is obviously 2 candles  and a shaped piece of wet floral foam in the middle. Stack them up and add the  small flowers. The trick is to completely cover the join between the floral foam and the candles top and bottom so you can't see the connection ... Isn't Mila Schumann a clever  gal and so were the group who  recreated it for their own pleasure  at the Hamilton club. 

I lost my candles though, someone wanted them to try the idea again for an event next weekend. She did promise to send me a photo however for you and me to see her second attempt!

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Whangamata Garden Club member's first flax flower boutonierre

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October edition of the Magout now! www.floraldesignmagazine.com #Christmas #Floral Design

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Toothpicks and springtime

It’s always exciting whenever my son and his girlfriend come home to stay. I always have new designs for them to discover and comment on all over the house – from all the new flowers in the garden and whatever I may have picked up around the countryside.

Here in NZ its early spring which means my Irises have come out – I just had to cut them for our dining room that looks out over the garden. There was also some Sedge (totally underappreciated as it looks a bit like swamp weed…but its great for adding length to design – very zen!) so I grabbed some of that too, for variety.

     I grabbed an old vase that I keep in my old “jar room” (My husband Michael calls it the bombsite!) and chucked them in. The purples against the white vase really popped, but – a common problem – the Iris stem was too short.

No problem! Simply grab some toothpicks and create a latticework. This sits on the top of the vase and stops the flowers from falling into it – simple!

      Plant the Sedge in among the lattice to give the design some height, I threw some old candles in jars that I had sitting in the bombsite, and voila! Instant centrepiece!