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Flax leaves! Twist them, circle them, make them into arrow heads, try a simple table design.
Gather a collection of coloured flaxes, all sizes and
widths and a small amount of flower material, in this case,
euphorbia. 
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"Prepare your rolled flax leaves
first," Joan suggests as she normally sits and does all she
needs before she starts a design. To roll the flax take
a piece and stroke it several times in the palm of your hand.
This warms it up so it will roll smoothly.Then trim the top to
a point to remove any untidy tops,and make it look
neater. Cut the bottom of the stem into an arrow
shape
 leaving the hard centre of the
flax only which will eventually to go into the floral
foam. |
| For the base of the design, glue two mirror tiles
together, and attach wetted floral foam in a cage or netting
to one of the corners of the tile, with oasis fix or
tape.Check it is held firmly. Cover the foam with green moss and then start adding the rolls of flax. "Make the rolls happy," says Joan, and put them in the foam turning upwards.Add in the big green ones, then the other colours, varying the sizes and widths to add interest.Some of the rolls will be too long, so recut the ends and save these pointed lengths to add to your design. |
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| Now add the euphorbia in the gaps, and tuck them into
the base of the design.Add two long lengths of unrolled
fax into the top to give the design
height.
Joan's tip is to wipe a small amount of oil or milk on the dull side of the flax to bring the colour out,. However don't make it too shiny as the viewer's eye will always go to the shiny plant material first and this will spoil the overall effect. "You can adapt this design for a
wedding very easily by adding white or yellow roses to a green
and golden yellow flax design. |
Learn how to manipulate Flax, Palms, Strelitzia and Aspidistra on CD CLICK HERE
