A free lesson for all flower arrangers with international designer Michelle Skeleton using beaded container with artificial muehlenbeckia vine in the traditional Christmas colours of red and green and modern style plant materials. Make a floral design that has maximum effect, using silk or fresh flowers and foliage.

RED AND GREEN REINVENTED

It was obvious really, give international floral designer Michelle Skelton a wonderful container littered artificial with muehlenbeckia twigs and tiny red beads and you just know she is going to reinvent it!

Michelle dares to be different, thinks outside the square, breaks all the boundaries and it is this and her absolute attention to detail that has won her many of the top awards around the world, and keeps her busy visiting numerous countries passing on her skills and flair.

What did she do with this container? Turned it upside down and used the bottom as the top!
"It reminded me of a Christmas Plum Pudding," she said, "and it needed contrast of texture as it was so busy, so I just had to go with big red artificial berries to go with the smaller red beads."

A walk around her garden looking for contrast in colour and form led to the decision to use the silver astelia leaves, the ivy and the teasels. The tiny Christmas parcels added the glitz.

For this design you can use dry foam for silks or wet foam to keep the ivy and astelia fresh. In either case the foam was a piece cut from the block about 2 cm (1 inch) wide which was secured to the flat base with long floristry pins, As the container is not solid, the pins keep it firm, "Rusty pins are even better," said Michelle" as they don't slide out"

If you are using wet floral foam you will have to wrap it in clingfilm first. Cover the foam with moss to hide it.

Add the astelia leaves. Start by looping them at the bottom and pinning into the container and swirling them upwards and around it so they finish by the foam. Tuck the tips into the vine in the container for a tidy look. The ivy trails are also wound around from the bottom with bigger leaves grouped into the floral foam.

Spray paint the teasels with red Designmaster paint. Coat them by lightly spraying once, letting it dry, then a light touch again so you don't get the heavy painted look.

Add the teasels into the foam in interesting groupings interspersed with more astelia leaves. Finally add groupings of berries and Christmas parcels (wired if necessary) to the foam and check your design for balance.

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