This might not be the jolliest of titles for a blog post but bare with me. I’m always intrigued to see what’s possible when making a foam free design. This one was inspired by a heart based design I did before Christmas. I was in a rush and ended up using an oasis base without thinking and then over the holiday period started wondering I would I make it without foam.
I started with some trusty clematis vine to create my heart shape, weaving it into place. I also weaved pieces across the back of the heart from side to side.
Thankfully I had moss left over from Christmas wreath making. I piled it up around the heart and because I’d put strips of clematis vine across from side to side, it meant the moss wouldn’t fall out the back.
I then wove strips of vine over the top of the moss to secure everything in place. I initially had thought I’d just put ranunculus in but realised that these flowers have fairly soft stems so I started instead with some purple linoleum. (see below)
So I talked about how ranunculus have fragile stems and realised they were going to need some support. I had some large cocktail sticks on the bench and so decided to post them into the stems as ranunculus have fairly hollow stems. You can see from the picture below that the stem split but because the cocktail stick had a sharp end I managed to gently wiggle it into the moss and make sure it was secure.
The paler pink ranunculus had even finer stems, so I used a piece of stem from the foliage I was using and wedged it up the hollow stem. Normally I would use wire but as I wanted this to be a totally compostable design I needed to think outside the box.
The thing I loved most about creating this design was that because I had made it with a moss base, I didn’t need to cram it full of flowers. I could leave sections of moss and vine showing and it still looks good. My list of ingredients is below.
Ingredients:
- 2 stems of spray rose
- 10 stems of ranunculus
- 2 stems of lisianthus
- 2 stems of clematis flower
- 2 stems of fern
- Handful of berried ivy.
what’s the “life span” of a design like this? are you able to make it the day before and have it in a cooler?
I reckon if the moss is well soaked and stems are are all tucked well into moss it should be fine.