Step by Step Tutorial: How to Make Woven Palm Leaf

Did you see how beautiful St. Peter Cathedral Church decorated on Sunday Palm March 24th, 2013? If you didn’t, you can see it here.

One of the main materials used to decor the altar and the wall was the woven palm leaf. Now we’re going to learn how to make it.

First, prepare the ‘yellow’ palm leaf. If you'd like to get the perfect result of the woven palm leaf, make sure that the leaf is perfect from top to down or all the leaves are intact or there is no hole or leaf eaten by caterpillar.

Second, start with the leaf on one side (whether right or left) then take the outer leaf and fold it forward, begin to weave the leaf, up - down - up - down... etc.

Then take the leaf which is now in the outermost position, do the same just like the second stage.

Do weave the leaf one by one neatly. Continue until you reach the top leaf.

If you have already finished to weave on one side, now do the same to all the leaves on the other side.

When you have completely done the both side, then tie the top with wire or you can use sellotape so that the woven palm leaf was not changed the shape.

Now turn the woven palm leaf upside down, you'll see some remaining leaves.

Then trim the remaining leaves by cutting them.

Last, you can use sellotape again to make it presentable at the back.

Done. The woven palm leaf is ready to be used to decor the altar or the church wall. You can see the St. Peter Cathedral church wall decor on Palm Sunday, March 24, 2013 here.

Step by Step Tutorial: Wall Décor on Palm Sunday 2013

Here’s the wall décor at St. Peter Cathedral Church, Bandung on March 24th, 2013 - the Palm Sunday. Gorgeous.

The credit goes to Margriet Team for this lovely church wall decor, in which the coordinator for the Palm Sunday is Mrs. Diana.

The materials used are (A) ‘yellow’ palm leaves, (B) ballon plant or asclepias fruitcosa, (C) flowers of ‘red’ palm, (D) cycas, (E) woven & braided palm leaves. You can find how to weave and braid the palm leaves here.

You also need the leaves of lady palm (raphis exelsa), cordyline, ruskus hypophyllum and leather leaf (arsionides). They’re not seen in the image.

First, prepare the base of the leaves arrangement. It contains of multiplex board, floral foam covered with plastic bag and chicken wire.

Then, starting to arrange the leaves. These are the step by steps.

2.         Place the lady palm leaves around the floral foam

3.         Take 2 stalks of big ‘yellow' palm leaves, then place them on the top left

4.         Take 2 sticks of braided palm leaves, place them on the right bottom of the arrangement.

5.         Take some stalks of small ‘yellow’ palm leaves. Put them on the left bottom.

6.         Take 3 sticks of woven palm leaves, bend a bit then place them as the center of the arrangement so that it looked like triangle.

 7.         Then fill the empty place with cordyline and ruscus.

8.         Last, place the ballon plant or asclepias fruitcosa somewhat to the middle, slightly above the braided palm leaves. Done.

The up close look

Note:

The image taken on Palm Sunday, March 24, 2013 at Cathedral St. Peter Church, Bandung.

Step by Step Tutorial: Palm Sunday Décor on Altar

This is how the altar of Cathedral St. Peter Church’s décor on Palm Sunday, March 24^th, 2013. It’s elegant, right?

The materials used are mostly kinds of palm leaves such as ‘cula’ palm, ‘lady’ palm or raphis exelsa, cycas, ballon plant or asclepias fruitcosa and woven palm leaves made of ‘yellow’ palm.

Step by step how to make the altar décor on Palm Suday:

1.         Prepare the long vase then fill it with wet floral foam.

2.        Place the leaves of 'cula' palm in the middle, left and right side of the arrangement, starting from the largest leaf at the back then the smaller one in front.

3.         Put the cycas leaves in upright position in front of the 'cula' palm leaves.  

4.         Place the leaves of ‘lady’ palm to fill the floral foam at the front.

5.         Then continue to place cycas leaves around the vase so as to form an oval shape.

6.         Prepare some woven palm leaves then place 3 pieces of them at the middle, bend them if necessary so that looked like a ball shape. Do the same at the left and right side of the arrangement. Now we have 3 'balls' as focal point.

You can find how to make the woven palm leaf here.

7.         The last, put some stems of asclepias fruticosa to fill the place among the woven palm leaves. Make sure the floral foam wasn't seen. Done.

The view of the altar from the front left side

The up close look

All the credit for this lovely church decoration goes to the Margriet Team of course, in which the coordinator for the Palm Sunday is Mrs. Liani. Good job ladies.

Note:

The image taken on Palm Sunday, March 24, 2013 at Cathedral St. Peter Church, Bandung.

Step by Step Tutorial: Garden Flowers for Easter Decoration

Tutorial this time’s introducing garden-flowers as flower decoration. And since we're still at the Lenten season, of course the flower arrangement was adjusted for the Easter theme. The floral designer's Mrs. Kitty Catharina.

The concept is how to make a floral decoration for Easter by using garden flowers. Up to now, people often underestimate garden flowers which have less value than commercial flowers not only for their quality but also durability. Flower arrangement using garden flowers often considered as the last option, not luxurious, not long lasting and others negative opinion. That opinion is actually not 100% false, but by planting them professionally such as using new way/technique/tools or good seeds, I think those barrier can be minimized and even can increase the product quality. And by creativity, now florists can proudly display their designs using garden flowers in their shops. Their designs even show uniqueness because some flowers can't be found at the usual flower market. So, who said garden flowers can't be beautifully arranged? This one proves it!   

The first thing to do is making the rectangle construction. The base is from styrofoam, here Mrs. Kitty using styrofoam that was formerly used to wrap a televison. So, you can also use any kind of used styrofoam you have at your house, ok? By doing this, it means you are supporting the recycling program ie re-use.

After that it's overlaid with large 'pandanus' leaves by using floral glue. Since floral glue is quite expensive here in Indonesia, so you can substitute it with double-sided tape, though the result is much neater if you use floral glue. It also shortens the processing time. So, it's up to you whether you'd like to use floral glue or double tape. There's quality there's price, right?

Mrs. Kitty did it at home and brought the 70% finished flower arrangement at the demo. So, it didn't take long time for her to perform the demo.  (image on the right)

The materials used are (A) ‘Vanda’ orchids, (B) roses of ‘Queen Mary’, (C) peacock, (D) Kermit or spray chrysanthemum, (E) mini phillo sellum, (F) ‘Mokara’ phalaenopsis, (G) a kind of ginger flowers or in some regions of Indonesia, it’s called as ‘Indonesian’ tulips.

The other materials not seen above are curly asplenium, azalea leaf, large pandanus leaf, ruscus, solanus, lilium variegata, gomphrena globasa and roses of ‘Avalance’.  For your information, all the materials above were picked from Mrs. Kitty’s flower garden. Awesome!!

You also need chicken wire, floral wire, some quail eggs and two artificial birds.

The step by step of flower arranging process will be described later because Mrs. Kitty did arranging with the base rectangle construction facing on her, so that the flower arranging process couldn't be photographed.

The latter was putting the bunny headband. It was made from chicken wire which was shaped like rabbit's ears then plaited with the leaves of lilium variegata.

Here’s the step by step tutorial how to make a flower centerpiece for Easter decoration.

1.        Take some stems of ‘Queen Mary’ roses. By using layering technique, placed them on the left side of the rectangle construction. Put the rose buds on top.

2.         Then put some 'Vanda' orchids on the left side of the flower arrangement, slightly waving down.

3.        Take some ginger flowers, cut the stems in different height then placed them in grouping on the right side of the rectangle construction.

4.         Placed some roses of ‘Avalance’ a bit forward from the ginger flowers. Use the basing technique.

5.         Fill the empty place between the both roses with spray chrysanthemum or Kermit

6.         Put the bunny headbands on its place on top right side

7.       Take the phalaenopsis of ‘Mokara’, cut it by each flower then strengthen it with a toothpick then cover it with floral tape. Put it at the bunny headbands, just like the image above.

8.         Put the quail eggs on the lower hole. (see the image)

9.         Finally, put the artificial birds on the higher hole. It’s done.

The view taken from the other angle (left image) and detail on the artificial birds (right image)

Note

Images taken at IPBI DPC Bandung Monthly Gathering, Feb 28, 2013

The floral designer’s Mrs. Kitty Catharina.

Step by Step Tutorial: Unique Centerpiece for Easter Decoration

Since we’re in the Lenten Season, so the theme for the decoration this time is for Easter. And the floral designer is Mrs. Ida Hermanto. The concept is the flower arrangement that suitable for Easter. As you know, Easter is identical with eggs, so Mrs. Ida also used eggs in her design. The design is simple but unique. Since it’s quite big, so we must concern about the construction well. It should be strong and firm or can’t move easily so it can arrive safely along its delivery.
This flowers arrangement is suitable for commercial as it takes time to make especially in preparing the construction. It needs not only a lot of techniques of flowers arranging such as grouping, basing, terracing and sheltering but also a lot of materials which most of them not cheap . So, for the beginners who want to try, I suggest to substitute some materials into the cheaper one, such as you can change the roses with spray chrysanthemum, the curly lucky dracaena with salix or any other twigs, use the usual green ivy in spite of the Hedera helix variegate though the last will bring unique sensation by its unique color curly leaves. You can also make your own bird nest to replace the sisal mesh that is quite expensive.

Anyway, happy a try, guys …

The detail of colorful eggs

 

The detail of the leaves ie the hedera helix variegata, the lilium variegate and the bi-color cordyline, not to mention the ruscus leaves attached on the vase.

The materials used are:

(A) curly lucky dracaena, (B) aspidistra leaf, (C) ‘Midori’ anthurium, (D) roses of ‘Avalance’ and ‘ Ilios’, (E) floral wire, (F) sisal mesh or pressed sisal wrap, (G) some eggs painted colorful.

Besides those mention above, you also need a plastic pot/vase, some floral wet foam, a sphere floral foam (Ø 22 cm) then form it into the ‘egg’ shape, ruscus leaves to cover the plastic vase, hedera helix variegata, bi-color cordyline, lilium variegata or in Indonesia it is popular as lily paris leaves and some baby roses.

And these are the step by step how to make it:

1.         Prepare some ruscus leaves, then cut them short, make sure the leaves have the same measure.

            Take the plastic pot/vase. Attach around the vase with double tape, then placed the ruscus leaves on the double tape. Do it from top to down until the surface of the vase was all covered by ruscus leaves. It will take some time to do this especially if you’d like to make it look neat. The more patient you do the neater you’ll get.

2.         Now the vase is ready to be filled with some floral wet foam. (Remember, you must soak the floral foam into the water some hours before until it absorb the water well)

3.         Take the ‘egg shape’ of floral foam then put it on the vase. Secure it by using chopsticks.

4.         Double secure by placing 3 stems of Curly lucky dracaena around the egg shaped foam. Now it cannot move left or right. It will remain in its place. Always make sure that the construction is sturdy before you're arranging. If it is not strong enough, then there’s possibility that the flower arrangement can fall or break down on the way of delivery, then we have to start over again which means a waste of time.

5.         Take a sisal mesh, then form it by using your fingers until it looks like a ‘nest’ shape. After that attach the nest on the stems of curly lucky dracaena,

6.         and if you think it’s been sturdy enough then put the eggs on the nest. By doing this, you’re using sheltering technique.

7.         Now, take some roses of ‘Avalance’, then cut the stems short, ± 6 – 8 cm below the flowers then placed them on the egg-shaped foam by using basing technique. Do this until you cover almost the surface of the egg-shaped foam, but remain it empty in some areas.

8.         Then fill in the empty place with the roses of ‘Ilios’.  Now the egg-shaped foam is all covered by the roses.

9.         Take the anthurium of ‘Midori’ and placed them in grouping technique on the left & right side. Make sure you placed them in different height into harmony. Some of them were placed around the edge of the vase.

10.       Take some cordyline leaves, folded into 2 or 3 (if the leaf is long) then placed them between the anthurium around the edge of the vase.

11.       Give wire on the stem of Hedera helix variegate so that it can be well arranged. Then put them on the left and right side of the flower arrangement.

12.       Take 2 of lilium variegata, then make 2 circle by using your palm, make sure the remain leaf on top, then secure it with floral wire. Now you have a cute model of the leaf.  Do some pieces of this model then placed them into the empty place among the cordyline, anthurium and roses so that there’s no foam seen now. Besides, by adding this cute model of leaf, the flower arrangement becomes lively, not monotonous or just flat surface. (Good design should consider the dimension whether depth, height or rhythm)

13.       Take some stems of baby roses, placed them near the curly lucky dracaena in a group. The height of the baby roses is a bit higher of the white roses.

14.       Finally, take aspidistra leaf, then fold it right/left that looks like the reverse of a small triangle. Now the aspidistra leaf has changed into a stem with a small triangle on top. Make 7 pieces of this model, then placed 5 of them near the baby roses in a group by using terracing technique. It’s done.

Have a Happy Easter for those who celebrate it.

Note:

The images were taken at the IPBI DPC Bandung Monthly Gathering – Feb 28, 2013

The floral designer’s Mrs. Ida Hermanto.