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

Fun With Colored Foam-4--Three Variations On A Theme

Isn't this an interesting approach?

I love the neat things that the various manufacturers and importers bring in to our industry. The various products and tools that are available to us as designers can bring a totally different look to our floral art.

And they are loads of fun to play with.

Good case in point, the various colored foams available courtesy of the Smithers Oasis Company. Oasis has always been on the cutting edge when it comes creating wonderful products for us to use in our designing.

The concept behiind colored foam is quite simple. Instead of hiding our foam mechanics with foliage or moss, why not let it work aesthetically as well as structurally? Let the foam itself become an actual part of the design to be viewed, instead of hiding it and having it work in the background.

With all kinds of bright and attractive colors, the creative possibilities are endless!

In this section we are going to show you three more variations on a theme. Once again our emphasis is on ease of contstruction. These designs are fun to do and make a very strong visual presentation.

In all cases we start with the glassware. Note that we are placing horizontal strips of colored foam, starting at the bottom and gradually working up to the top. Brick, yellow and blue colored foam are wedged in tightly. They have been saturated with water.

What You Will Need

Glass container

Carnations

Bells of Ireland

Filler such as Solidago or Solidaster

Colored foam

Bamboo (River cane)

Variation One--

Start by placing several bells of ireland into the left side of the container.

Five carnations are placed to the far right of the design.

Yellow filler materials such as solidaster or solidago help to unify the design connecting the top section with the base.

The overall form is parallel structure, or parallelism, but definitely carried out in a contemporary and funky way.

Variation Two--

Remember this? If you checked out "Fun With Colored Foam 3" this design should look familiar to you!

Let's combine it with the parallel structure illustrated earlier. All we have to do is place one design next to the other. Notice how the red of the carnations and yellow of the filler are in common to both designs. Similarly the yellow and brick colored foam are used in both units. The final result is a larger more modular parallel piece wih three focal areas.

We could stop at this point.....BUT WAIT.... THERE'S MORE!!!.......

Variation Three--

Let's take the second variation as our starting point.

But now lets get really wild.

Using river cane or bamboo lets place some pieces first vertically, then horizontally and finally at a diagonal. The last pieces tie the two sections of the design together. These can be glued or tied with wire.

This last variation may be a bit too wild for some folks, but hey, let's loosen up a bit.

One reason many folks attend Rittners Floral School is to encounter, not only classical floral art, but also cutting edge techniques and ideas.

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. Folks attend Rittners Floral School, because not only are we very, very fine floral designers, but also because we are outstanding teachers!! Please come and take one of our hands-on workshop programs!!

Rittners Floral Education Center returns you to our Floral Education Cente