HOW I MADE IT : Entwined Flower Bowls

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Isn’t it funny that sometimes the very simplest of things can yield the most wonderful of results.

For all the techniques I know, for all the hours I can spend crafting a design, and despite fifteen years of experience working with flowers, I still find such a joy in the simplest of techniques, arranged in the simplest of ways. Don’t get me wrong - this isn’t to say that simple techniques or indeed simple designs cannot be delightful expressions of beauty - far from it - as we’ll prove today.

In today’s How I Made It we’ll be diving into a sustainable floral design technique - The Winding Branch Technique. This technique is one of my favourites as it uses nothing but natural materials and has a great deal of flexibility involved - you can scale this technique up for larger floral displays, or simplify it, as I’ve done in today’s design to create a delicate centrepiece. This technique is featured in my brand new e-book collection - The Sustainable Floral Design Technique Collection, available now, from LearnJosephMassie.com, and features over 25 sustainable, foam free techniques across over 250 pages. Read on to discover how this technique has been applied today.

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Images taken from the Sustainable Floral Design Technique Collection

A side note before we dive into this article - please know that this How I Made It article features gifted product - the Clematis Amazing Tokyo, grown by the wonderful Marginpar. If you haven’t worked with Clematis Amazing® Tokyo before, you are in for a real treat. Tokyo is an incredible pink Clematis, approximately 70/80 cm tall with a whopping six flowers per stem. All it’s blooms are photo-kinetic (just like tulips and other spring flowers) meaning that it’s flowers will turn upright, towards the light, even when used horizontally. The long stems of the Clematis Amazing® Tokyo are great for a variety of designs work, and like all Clematis, it blooms best in water as opposed to floral foam. For further information, be sure to check out the Marginpar range of blooms right here.

Let’s dive in!

1 - To begin, take a stem of Clematis Tokyo, and carefully begin to strip the leaves from the stem using a pair of snips or a sharp floral knife. Try not to pull the leaves from the stem - instead snip them cleanly off to avoid damaging the main flower stem. If you can’t source Clematis Tokyo, you could recreate this design using Passionflower vines, Tulips, or any other flexible blooms.

2 - For this design I’ve selected a collection of smallish half fishbowls, of varying different sizes, which can be arranged in a plethora of ways. I’ve styled this design to be a particularly gorgeous tablescape, resplendent with tall taper candles, however you could easily arrange these vases in a cluster upon a coffee table, or along a sideboard or mantle as desired. My advice? Just be sure to select the right size and amount of vases to decorate your space appropriately. To begin, fill your vase around a third full of fresh water, take a single stem of Clematis, and slowly wind it gently into vase, starting with the stem in first.

3 - Continue to carefully wind the stem into the vase, taking care not to snap the stem as you do so. You’ll find Clematis Tokyo to be a reliable playmate - it’s flexible stems will easily curve into your bowls, creating a winding, overlapping eco-system within the bowl. Take care to ensure that the stem of the Clematis ends up beneath the waterline, providing your bloom with a water source. Depending upon the size of your fishbowl you may wish to add in several stems of Clematis, adding colour and texture to the vase, but also to create a delicate, foam free structure as the winding stems of the Clematis will naturally provide support for the additional stems we’ll add in next.

4 - Now we’ve added our ‘base’ stem of Clematis to wrap around the inside of the vases, we can next add in shorter stems of Clematis through the design, further entwined and supported within the vase. For reference, the vase shown above is approximately 15cm in diameter, and I used one stem entwined inside the bowl, and added a further stem (cut into two shorter stems) placed into the vase also. Add in further stems of Clematis until you’re happy with the fullness of the vase.

5 - Repeat the process a further few times until you have the right number of vases to decorate the table (or space) you have in mind. For this design, I’ve used six vases, three slightly larger and three slightly smaller. In all cases, each and every stem is placed directly into the water to promote maximum vase life.

6 - Arrange the vases into the space, in a way that feels right and appropriate for the environment. Once arranged feel free to tweak the design as required - adding in a few more blooms to create areas of dominance and recession throughout the design.

7 - To finish, top up the water within the vases as needed, and to style add in a handful of elegant taper candles in a complimentary colour, adding further sparkle as needed. Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Useful links for you to explore:

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Have a wonderful week,

- Joseph

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