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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Easy Silk Orchid and Natural Mix Arrangements- Tutorial



















For years now I have not had any faux/silk floral arrangements in my home. I got rid of anything “faux” more than 10 years ago after Nate Berkus’s appeared on Oprah and cringed when Oprah asked him what he thought about faux/silk arrangements. Nate talked about only sticking with natural elements in decorating and that faux arrangements and silks will never look natural… Yep, Nate was right as hard as it was to hear. I tossed everything that wasn’t natural and steered clear of “faux” floral until this last year.

These days, faux/silk florals have come a long way. Especially orchids and faux grasses. Orchids and grasses are everywhere these days and it seems like every decorator around has some sort of orchid arrangement as an accent in a room. I know most of these orchid arrangements simply cannot be real. Have you ever tried to keep an orchid alive or blooming for more than five minutes? Virtually impossible!

There are some gorgeous silk orchid stems and grasses on the market right now and mixing them with real naturals like spanish and green moss and bamboo in elegant containers, really makes these arrangements look natural and fantastic. Take a look at these beautiful silk orchids mixed with natural elements that I found online at Elegant Pots and Petals:











Making these arrangements yourself are very easy, not to mention very inexpensive for such a gorgeous look. Over the last year, I have made many of these arrangements for myself and friends and have a couple easy tricks that I wanted to share with you that really make these arrangements look natural and beautiful in any decor.

I love to start with a beautiful and unique container, especially one that you wouldn't traditionally see used for an arrangement for that added unique element. Here are some of the containers I have used recently:











In choosing a silk orchid(s), I look for silk or thin fabric orchids (some are a cheap looking combo of plastic/silk). You don't have to look very far, I have found perfect silk orchids at my local craft store. I also look to see if the petals/blooms on the orchids are curved inward like a natural orchid (versus simply flat cut out fabric often used to "resemble" a petal). Here are some close ups of what I mean:








My trick to a good orchid arrangement is that I mix in grasses to make it look more natural and have used both artificial or dried grasses. I have found fabulous artificial grasses (some have a dried real grass mix!) that I love to use at craft stores that looks like this:





For narrow opening containers, I use enough grass bunches and orchid(s) that I can tightly push down into the opening only about 4 inches into the narrow opening that will securely hold the arrangement. It's really more like stuff as many as you can because you need enough to keep it from sliding down all of the way into the container. My trick is to put the orchid(s) or this case, my ginger in the middle of my three grass bunches like this:














And then I pull the sides of the grasses down around my container until I like the balance like this:











For a little bit wider containers, I cut just enough floral foam block to go down the opening and stick my stems into the block before I slide it down into the container. In this next arrangement picture, I used one very thin bunch of a grass mix (artificial and dried) and one orchid. I slid the stem of the orchid down the middle of the grass bunch. I then secured the arrangement by stuffing as much Spanish moss as I could in the opening that would also hold the arrangement tightly in place:








The above arrangement is a perfect example of how mixing naturals like the Spanish moss and dried grass mix with a silk can really make the overall arrangement look very natural even though I'm using a "faux" orchid.


For larger more planter style containers, I fill the bottom of the container with floral foam bricks cut to be as snug as possible and depending on the the depth of the base in proportion to where I want my arrangement to begin, I may have to stack the floral bricks. I always use additional cut up floral bricks to fully fill the whole inside of the container around the base of the stems to snuggly secure my arrangement. For these type of arrangements, I usually use two bunches of the larger artificial grasses:





and two orchid stems placed exactly in the middle of the grass bunches like I did with the above ginger arrangement and then I place into the floral brick. I then generously top with either green moss or Spanish moss coming over the edges and then I fluff and pull down the grasses (leaving some of the grasses standing straight up next and mixed in with the orchid blooms/petals) and slightly pull around the orchids to fluff the arrangement:





For small containers and smaller arrangements, I take my orchid stem and cut about 1/3rd off of the bottom off the stem. I then simply cut a small amount of grass blades from a larger artificial grass bunch (cut the exact same hight of the orchid I cut) and I place it in the container. While I hold the small arrangement, I fill the small container with rocks like this:









Making these arrangements really is so easy and inexpensive. There are a lot of various options for containers and mixing the orchids with dried or artificial grasses really makes these arrangements look gorgeous and natural. I wonder if Nate would be open to this compromise of mixing silk and natural elements?




I have several projects ready for posting, so check back soon! As always, thank you so much for your sweet comments, emails and notes! I just love, love, love your feedback and thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts and creativity with me!

Have a great rest of the week and Happy Mother's Day early!

Cheers!
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3 comments:

  1. I saw that same episode of Oprah and I have been really gun shy about artificial plants ever since! I've had to resort to artificials the last couple of years because my cat eats everything! He even eats the fake plants, but at least they're not poisonous :) Your arrangements are beautiful. I think Nate and Oprah would approve!

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  2. There are some nice ideas :)
    and do not miss,,

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    WELCOME :)
    Håkan ( The Roseman)

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  3. Very informative! I learn a new thing every day. Hope for more. Will be coming for more Florist in Manhattan.

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