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

How To Make A Nutcracker Vase Arrangement

Isn't this a neat vase arrangment?

Many people think of a vase arrangement as simply that....

But vase arrangements can have not only aesthetic aspects but also utilitarian ones as well.....

Simply stated.....someone wants to give a specific gift to a friend, relative or colleague.....

They could simply wrap the gift, and present it to the recipient......

But there is a far more classy way to go about it............. Namely by integrating the gift item with a piece of floral art............

By doing that, the arrangement itself becomes a vehicle to present the gift......

The recipient is delighted because s/he recieved a gift......But they are even more excited, because they also received it in the context of a lovely floral design....

In this case the gift is a nutcracker.........Many people are collectors of nutcrackers........and the item also has the great associations with the classic story and the Christmas season.



What You Will Need

  • Container
  • Foam
  • Nutcracker
  • Larkspur
  • Roses
  • Statice
  • Foliage or moss
    to cover the mechanics


  • Let's start this design by placing foam into the container.

    The nutcracker gift item is secured in place....

    Next, let's start working some larkspur into the arrangement....

    The larkspur is tall and impressive. Notice how it is placed high on the right, angled down towards the baseline, and finally swings towards the left....




    Next, let's create some contrast in shape.

    Larkspur is a very flat, spikey kind of flower. Roses on the other hand, are more of a round, face flower.....

    The two materials contrast well with each other in form.....Yet they also blend in well with each other due to the similarity of color.....




    Notice how we are gradually working down and towards the left, filling in the baseline with our roses.

    While the roses are impressive, we don't want to hide or cover the nutcracker in any way.......Thus the roses are placed quite flat, in towards the baseline.




    A little bit of statice now provides even more contrast to the mixture. Be sure to use a little bit of foliage or moss to cover the mechanics....Very little foliage or moss is likely to be needed because the flowers themselves are packed in closely enough to the base to provide a great degree of cover to the mechanics.

    This arrangement could be used during the Christmas season

    But it could also be used at any time throughout the year.....

      For a significant other.

      As a birthday gift.

      As a gift to give when visiting someone's home.

      For Mother's Day

      For a mantel decoration. (How about two of them as matching bookends in opposite directions?)



    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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