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Rittners School Of Floral Design
In Boston Presents....
Fun With Colored Foam-5
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 another striking design using rainbow foam. Once again our emphasis is on ease of contstruction. This design is a fun one to do and should really impress your family and friends.
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
Bells of Ireland
Filler such as Solidago or Solidaster
pomponsColored foam
Bamboo (River cane)
Start by creating a shape with our bells of ireland.
Notice that with the long length of the bells of ireland that we can make a fairly large design quite quickly and easily.
Use a filler such as solidago or solidaster to create bulk and shape through the middle of the design down to the base.
We don't really think of "covering the mechanics" in the traditional sense when we are designing in colored foam. But our filler is doing just that. Our foam becomes an interesting means to using glassware. It provides a wild color and pattern. There is a nice unification due to the yellow of our foam and yellow of the filler.
We could stop very nicely at this point.....BUT WAIT.... THERE'S MORE!!!...
 To add more value to our design we fill in with some yellow pompons.
Many folks these days are conservative when it comes to painting or decoratng rooms. They sometime use whites, creams, or perhaps grays as their primary wall color. These achromatic type environments literally beg for a strong dash of color, especially via decorative items such as pillows, paintings and of course floral art. This bright and exciting design would provide a great point of interest in a room decorated that way.
If, on the other hand, you wish to "tone it down" you could do so quite easily by picking a more muted groupings of colors for foam in the glass base. For example, white and green stripes would still work nicely with the floral part of the design, yet provide a more subdued visual effect.
The beauty of the floral foam in a rainbow of colors is that it gives you so many options to try. So experiment! Have fun! And to perfect your floral skills, make sure you take a course here at Rittners Floral School!!!
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
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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