Tall and Wavy

Once again a practice piece using plant material I would not normally consider – mostly because it doesn’t “speak” to me in an artistic sense. The longer you design in floral art the more comfortable you get with certain types of plant material – for me, as many of you know, it is with Australian native flora.

Here I have a fabulous metal stand originally used for tea light candles (yes, another charity store find!). There is much potential for this stand as it could be used on its own or incorporated into a design with sympathetically shaped branches or large foliage stems…..

Back to this design. My first challenge was to extend the visual size of the stand so that the very vertical wavy line of the metal edges was not quite as dominant. This is achieved by threading the sansevieria leaves in and out of the stand as well as having them face in different directions/angles. An added advantage of these leaves is that they do have a tendency to curl and therefore produce a “wave” of their own.

Across the top section of the stand I have placed a length of paper covered wire that provides a wider top to the stand. These extra “arms” are enhanced with spirals of the paper covered wire with mobile (suspended with fishing swivels) drops of either wood slices or dried amaranthus.

Each of the tea light candle cups has some sedum flowers – used because they are small, the right colour and, as a succulent, do not need a water source. A single dried strelitzia leaf is placed to show its natural curl and add to the wavy lines of the design. (Click here for the easy technique for drying strelitzia leaves.)

Review Comments: When I placed the image of this design on social media, it immediately had many “likes”, many from floral art judges whose opinion I respect. I admit I was surprised as I didn’t know if I liked the design or not.
Looking at it today (over a year later) I can say I am happy with the way the wavy lines are repeated in both placements and plant material. I would probably bring the dried amaranthus drop a bit further away from the body of the design and then move the middle (wood slice) drop further across the design to correspond with the new placement. Perhaps making the base reflect the colours of the sansevieria would also enhance the design – the base circle is a definite stopping point for my eyes.

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