Creating (Copying) a Masterpiece

Starting this project with enthusiasm served to reinforce my understanding of why the original floral arrangement cost $175.

My first mistake was my choice of container. I chose a cast off plastic pot that came with something I bought at the nursery last year. (The tapered shape with the lip on top made gluing a minor mess.) I cleaned it with TSP and let it dry thoroughly.

Instead of twigs from whatever kind of tree the original artist used, I walked to the corner lot and picked up a bunch of bamboo stalks. (The owner of the lot has been trying to destroy this growth of bamboo for years but it just keeps coming back.)

Items needed
1. Used pot (flower pot, coffee can, anthing the size you want our finished product to be.
2 hot glue and gun ... (or any kind of sticky stuff, maybe even that two sided tape ... experiment)
3. aquarium stones (or any clean stones or other stuff to give weight to the item)
4. scrap felt (I used this on the bottom so it can sit on good furniture and not scar it
5. skinny bamboo (from local Home Depot or Lowes or if you're lucky like me, from a plant in an otherwise empty field) or you can use twigs from your forest ... best use stuff that doesn't have sap ... birch, maple, for example.
6 styrophoam or floral foam. I used bits and pieces that were used for packing my laptop.
7 silk flowers or home made paper flowers.

Part One: The Container
1. If you pot has holes on the bottom, cover them up by gluing a piece of cardboard on the inside.
2. Attach (glue) the felt to the bottom.
3. Cut or break twigs or bamboo different heights but at least the height of the pot. Keep a couple of shorter twigs for filler.
4. Glue about four twigs together at the bottom. This is so you can make sure you will get them straight (level) when you start your project.

(You don't want to do what I did and get a half dozen shoots of bamboo glued only to discover they were on a slant. I had to start over.)
5. Glue these four to the pot, make sure they are about 1/16 of inch from the bottom. You don't want them to touch the surfacen the final product will sit on.
6. Continue to glue twigs all around, keeping them touching.

Once the bamboo or twigs are attached all around, fill in any openings. (If you have really straight twigs, you probably won't need these.

Part Two: The Inside
1. Pour the aquarium rocks on the bottom. About two inches should work okay.
2. Stuff the container with styrofoam or floral foam nearly to the top.
3. Pour in the rest of the rocks.
4. Arrange your flowers inside.

Part Three: Enjoy

Christmas Inspiration for Spring

Christmas Eve, 2009, a horde of people arrived in Las Vegas, all ages, from Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia (I think), Vermont and, well, I just don't know. They were relatives of my friend Kat who asked if I would enjoy spending the holiday with this crew. Why not, I asked myself. Not only would I get to meet a lot of people, but also, I'd be treated to two fantastic Christmas dinners. The planned itinerary was simple. Kat and her folks, who also live in Las Vegas, decided it would be a good idea to take everyone to the Bellagio to see the fantastic indoor garden especially decorated for the holiday (what a site), visit the chocolate waterfalls, ohh and ahh over the Dale Chihuly glass flower ceiling in the hotel lobby and, of course, meander through the shops.

In one of the gift boutiques a particular work of art caught my eye and it had a price tag of $175. (Sadly, there was no artist listed for this piece.) Christmas, remember? Who had $175 (plus tax) left over to buy anything for herself? Not this blogger. So, I took this picture.



Well, the digital picture doesn't look that great lying flat on a side table in my living room so I decided I'd try to duplicate this lovely piece. Okay, not duplicate because first, I didn't have the same supplies and second, I wanted to use found materials and third, while they say imitation is the highest form of flattery, I cannot presume to create anything as good as the artist's original.

I'm nearly finished with my version of this decorative item. I'll be posting it shortly. Meanwhile, what do you think of the original?