White is COOL, it is colorless, its ACHROMATIC color harmony.

Add grey and it feels icy, snowy and fits the mood of the winter season.

This design is built on a birch twig wreath.

WHITE + WREATH = CHRISTMAS!!!

Construction

A wooden wreath made from birch twigs made perfect base to drill holes for Water tubes on Bamboo Skewer wrapped with birch bark. Curved Chickenwire Rolls  are embedded underneath the floating water tubes on skewer, directly above the wood twig wreath.  Half the wreath was constructed for flowering low and the other half have tall willow whips partially wrapped with white yarn, and lichen branches to create a natural trellis to support the tall white Amaryllis stems.  White yarn wrapped midollino & wire components visually flow through the design, uniting the 2 halves in a natural vining way.

Supplies

• Chickenwire Rolls (how-to on Hitomi’s YouTube video tutorial)

• Watertube on Bamboo Skewers (how-to on Hitomi’s YouTube video tutorial)

• Midollino & Wire Vine (how-to on Hitomi’s YouTube video tutorial)

• Lichen branches

• ‘TORKA’ Willow whips (IKEA)

• Birch Bark

• White yarn

• Birch twigs built into a wreath

• Bindwire

• UGlu dashes

• Hot Glue

The Botanicals

The first step was to establish the end of the year mood with mature Passion vine draped across the top of the vertical willow whips and Lichen branch to naturalize the space.

The second step was to free-stem short pieces of bushy Oregonia, blueberry Juniper and variegated Holly to fill the half wreath chickenwire rolls to create the foundation for flowering in the tubes.

All the flowers used are white in this design.  Amaryllis specifically is often associated with Christmas season.

I also selected typical Christmas greens such as Variegated Holly, Douglas Fir and Blue berried Juniper… a nice mix of coniferous and broadleaf evergreens give sense of winter.

Some of the materials have the flannel grey, fibrous texture - Kochia, Woolly Bush, Calocephalus and Tillandsia, they fit perfectly into the visually cool Achromatic color harmony.

• Anemone coronaria

• Amaryllis – Hippeastrum ‘Mont Blanc’

• Ranunculus asiaticus

• Scabiosa

• Kochia

• Calocephalus

• Tillandsia xerographica pieces

• Oregonia

• Douglas fir

• Variegated Holly

• Passiflora vine

• Asparagus setaceus (plumosa)

Elements Utilized

• LINE: Lichen branches, vertical line of willow whips, curvilinear line of midollino/wire vine. Passion vine, Amaryllis stem

• FORM: Wreath form (Birch twigs), variation of Flower forms

• COLOR: Achromatic Color Harmony – white/grey

• SPACE: Open, transparent design… 

• TEXTURE: Wood, flower, grey flannel surfaces, diaphanous plumosa fern, fussy lichen

Principles Employed

• Asymmetrical Design

• Solid physical balance on Static wreath base

• An example of Duality – 2 directional flow, unified by the wreath base

• Horizontal high density greening and vegetative flowering above half the wreath frame

• Vertical linear flow over the other half of the wreath frame, creating curving transparent wall and support for Amaryllis stems

• Achromatic Color Harmony – cool, frosty, wintery

• Subtle Color Variation – story of soft contrast/similarities, not hard contrast

Sketches

(click to enlarge)

Red is HOT, as in warmth by the fireplace.  It is also the most significant color, along with green and white to indicate the Christmas season.  The most visible red botanicals in flower design are the Holly Berries – Ilex aquifolium (Common Holly) and Ilex verticillata (Winterberry).  Profusion of these berries along with other intriguing red flowers make Christmas more festive!!  This is designed for a Christmas party – the greens and berries are not in water – longevity of this design is 3-5 days depending on room temperature. All cutflowers have water source.

Construction

4 x 4” fence post was cut up into several different lengths to re-construct them into 3 candleholder blocks.  An added decorative element, along with built-in mechanics to hold flowers make these versatile in its use as Christmas décor in a home.

One structure has 2 wood blocks connected with a length of PVC pipe by way of threaded metal rod with nuts and washer to secure a solid fit.

2 shorter structures have 3 wood blocks connected with 2 varying lengths of PVC pipe as spacers, connected and secured with threaded rods, nuts and washers. The PVC pipes are covered with red felt strips hot glued to the surface.  This allows for good adhesion of faux red berries to fill in the spacing attractively.

4 short bamboo skewers with pointed end up is glued into drilled holes on the top of the wood block.  A chickenwire pillow is slipped over it, followed by the 6” red pillar candle pressed down onto the skewer points firmly keeping the space open for water tubes to be placed into the chicken wire for flowering.

Appropriately sized holes are drilled diagonally at varied angles to hold lengths of willow whips to create angular, geometric structure surrounding the block.  These are the attach points to bindwire Ilex verticillata stems to build the sculptural red dominant structure.

Supplies

• 6ft. length – 4 x 4” fence post                              

• Permanent Red Berries

• PVC pipe (1/2”)                                                  

• Willow Whips ‘Torka’ (IKEA)

• Threaded rod (1/4”)                                            

• Bindwire

• Nuts & Washers                                                 

• UGlu dashes

• Red Felt                                                            

• Bamboo Skewers

• Hot Glue                                                           

• 6” Pillar Candles

• Chickenwire Pillows (how-to on Hitomi’s YouTube video tutorial)

Botanicals

1. Ilex verticillata stem placements, whole length bind-wired to the anular willow structure in reverse with concentration of red berries closer to the block.  Some stems are cut into sections bind-wired into place     to visually add red in attractive proportion throughout each structure.

2. Add short, cut bushy lengths of Christmas greens - blue berry Juniper & Oregonia free-stemmed (no water source) into the chicken wire pillow to lightly fill the mechanics.

3. Follow by placement of Pine branch bindwired into place for a perfect Christmas touch.

4. The red Amaryllis is cut to length at suitable height for placement vertical to the candleholder wood block.  

5. The stem end is in plastic bag wrapped and UGlued tight around the bottom. The plastic is decoratively covered with red yarn. A square hole is cut in the upper part of the stem to be able to fill with water with a squeeze bottle (an awesome technique explained by Gregor on Day 2 – a great trick!).  This stem is bindwired to combination of willow whip and chickenwire pillow to hug tight to the side of the block in a perfectly vertical position.

6. Arrange the flowers attractively into the water tubes to create dimensionality while keeping the design transparent.   

•             Anthurium

•             Amaryllis ‘Red Lion’ (Hippeastrum)

•             Jatropha

•             Ilex verticillata (Winterberry)

•             Bromeliad inflorescence

•             Riceflower (Ozothamnus diosmifolius)

•             Brunia noduliflora

•             Tillandsia bulbosa

•             Oregonia

•             Juniper Blue Berry

•             Pine

•             Variegated Holly (Ilex aquifolium)

•             Woolly Bush (Adenanthos sericeus)

Elements Utilized

• LINE: Willow whips, Ilex verticillata, Pine branches

• FORM: Wood blocks, Faux Berry Cylinders, Pillar candles, Flower forms, repetition of Round berries

• COLOR: Red dominance, green and white subordination

• SPACE: Open silhouette

• TEXTURE: Wood, Berries, Needles, Anthurium, Contrast in floral textures

Principles Employed

• Asymmetrical Balance

• Botanicals to Structure Proportion

• Red Berry to Wood block Proportion

• Proportion - red dominant

• Botanical intrigue – contrast tropicals to temperates

• Surface textural contrast – woolly to glossy

• Red to white/grey contrast – opposition

• Economy of Means

• Geometric rhythm

Sketches

(click to enlarge)