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Rittners School Of Floral Design
In Boston Presents....

How To Make A Novelty Eight Ball Design

I think that novelties are among the most fun floral designs to stylize. They are fun to develop, and they are always enjoyed by the recipient. The Eight Ball Design here could be used quite effectively in several contexts.....Many folks love to play billiards. For the enthusiast a novelty like this would make quite a splash.

On the other hand, for someone who feels that s/he is "behind the eight ball" this arrangement could serve as a morale booster!!




What You Will Need

  • Round black container
  • Small plastic dish
  • Foam
  • River cane
  • Pipecleaners
  • Paper
  • 11 Fuji mums
  • Statice
  • 5 roses
  • Moss


  • We start this design by constructing the novelty base. A small plastic container is turned upside down. The larger plastic spherical container is glued to the inverted plastic base. A circle is cut out of white paper. An "8" is fashioned from pipecleaners. The "8" is glued to the paper which in turn is glued to the black spherical base. The base is filled with foam.

    The pool stick is constructed by cutting out a section of river cane, and attaching a little section of pipecleaner to the end. It is attached to the foam, across the front of the design.

    Next we start with our placement of the fuji mums as shown in the photograph.

    The interesting thing about this design is that just about any thing as far as flowers are concerned, could be stylized here with good results. The novelty that really attracts the eye to this unit is the contrived eight ball and the simulated cue stick.......Curiously, although it may be possible to locate an actual eight ball container, the fact that this one was obviously made from other component parts is what really creates a lot of interest in this design.



    Continue placing the fujis as shown. I like to think of it as a step-like arrangement, starting high and gradually working down towards the base.

    Fuji mums are a special favorite of mine. They come in a variety of colors such as yellow, lavender and white. They are available throughout the year. They are a very long lasting flower as are most of the flowers in the chrysanthemum family. Best of all they are visually interesing. The stems are long and the heads fairly big. This means that we can get great coverage out of this flower. It fills space quite nicely to provide quite a large unit. The individual flowers radiate in such a way as to add to the visual appeal.....




    Continue placing the fujis as shown. Notice that we work a few flowers towards the left on the base, and then swing down towards the right side......

    This design is definitely a one sided piece....In other words there is a front side, facing you in this picture, and a back side.....

    No foliage is used in this design. All of the mechanics at the base are covered by sheet moss. However, there is no reason why you couldn't substitute any of a wide range of foliages (eg. baker fern, sprengeri, or ming fern).




    Let's mix a few other things into this design....

    Roses are one of the most popular flowers in the world. So let's add some into this design. Five roses are placed in between the fujis. Please note that we are creating an interesting gentle curve starting at the top left of the design and working down towards the lower right. The overall effect creates interest. It also means that areas of the design that previously looked rather stark and empty now seem far more value laden.

    Finally let's add some statice to the design. The statice is placed in towards the base in between the fujis. It provides a subtle variation in form and color.

    Some variations???

    In place of the fujis consider a design stylized from stargazer lilies, gerbera, sunflowers, godetia, snapdragon or any combination of them all.

    In place of the roses, substitute heather, delphinium, anthurium, or tulips.

    In place of statice, consider solidago, astilbe, monte casiino,or feverfew.

    Got your creative juices flowing??? Good!!!! Easy to stylize, fun to do, this novelty will delight your friends and family. Try it and enjoy!!!



    We hope that you really enjoyed this brief floral design lesson. At Rittners Floral School in Boston we provide floral design instruction that includes a wide range of different styles and techniques. Please come and take one of our hands-on workshop programs!!



  • Floral Education Center returns you to our Floral Education Center.



    Your Webmaster is Dr. Steve Rittner, who may be reached at Stevrt@tiac.net. All photographs and text on this page are Copyright - Rittners School, and may not be reproduced, or used for any commercial purposes.

     

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