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

How To Make A Computer Vase Arrangement

A computer vase arrangement? Sure why not!!!! When I started playing with computers I was fascinated when someone in the Macintosh community suggested recycling older non functioning computers as aquariums. As a floral designer, I have a slightly different perspective....If you have an old computer that has died and simply won't function anymore, consider using it as a base for a very unusual vase arrangement!!! It will add a touch of pizzazz to your office, den or corporate reception area. It will make a really novel gift for anyone who loves computers!!!!

What You Will Need

We start this design by attaching a container to the top of a computer. We are using an inexpensive utility plastic container and making sure it is secure through the use of a glue gun.

Important note. This design is being made in a foam base,and therefore there is water in the base. Never, ever make this kind of design on a live computer or on a computer that is plugged in to electricity. For your protection only use a nonfunctioning machine with no hope of redemption with the power cord removed or on a shell case with all of the electronics removed.

Place a block of foam into the container. Cover the base with your moss. Alternatively you could use foliage to cover your mechanics. Start with bird of paradise. Place as shown in the photograph.

Next lets add some carnations. Carnations are a very good keeping flower. They are easy to work with and are available in a wide range of colors. They fill space well and are easy on your budget. Perhaps this is why they are one of the most widely traded flowers in the world! Place as shown in the photograph.

When you finish with your carnations, take your poms and start to distribute them throughout the design. Poms are a great flower for they also last well. Because they have many flowers to the stem, you can get great coverage with them. Cut off individual flowers from the stems and place them, starting at the top of the design, working down towards the base.

Next, let's place some glads into the design. Glads are a very versatile flower. You can get tremendous coverage from them. They fill an area quite nicely, and they come in a variety of colors.

Notice how we are really mixing all kinds of things together. Some designers try to come up with all kinds of rules in terms of what can be mixed with what. That is rather constipated, in my opinion. I think that often, random mixes give far more interesting results.

The center bottom of the design looks rather empty, and so.....

Let's add some of our miniature carnations. They are a good lasting flower, and have multiple flowers on a stem, so that you can get very good coverage from them.

Start adding some filler materials here and there through the arrangement. Fillers such as statice come in a variety of colors. Here we are using both purple and white statice. It provides contrast of both color and form, and makes the design all that more interesting.

What appeared rather empty in the past few photos now really seems to be gaining form and substance. Doesn't it seem to be much more appealing? Good......We're making great progress on this design. Not much more to go!

You are going to get great comments from this design!!!!!

We used some of our poms earlier in this design. Lets add some more here, mixing them in with the minis in the front of the design, and with the rest of the flowers throughout the body of the unit. The variety used here is a white daisy pom. Daisy poms look somewhat like daisies, but have much longer stems and are very hardy. The white helps to provide contrast.

To finish the design we incorporate yellow cushion poms, placing them randomly. The overall effect is rich, opulant and showy.

We could change the contents of this design.

For example, to create a longer lasting, and much more expensive display of flowers, we could substitute silk materials in place of live flowers.

Of course if we used live materials, we could change the design often depending upon the time of the year and our budget.

For example making this design for St. Patrick's Day we might use white and green carnations and miniature carnations. For Valentine's Day we would use red and pink flowers, including some roses. For a Christmas design we could use evergreen foliages, and add cones and Christmas ornaments. Of course if we wanted to make this a very expensive design we could incorporate such flowers as roses, lilies, and spray orchids. The colors that we chose to use today were deliberately bright. However this design can be stylized with colors that will blend in with just about any taste or decor.

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!!