This post is for the florist.
Floral foam is bad.
Bad for the environment, Bad for our lungs.
Let’s try to use it less.
With that being said, here is another way to create a beautiful, but efficient, foam free installation piece.
It was great, because we were able to tear it down like it was nothing.
Supplies needed
- Two white buckets (We used old Lowe’s buckets)
- Rocks (enough to fill a bucket)
- Wooden post (or whatever you want as the support beam.)
- Zip ties (industrial)
- Chicken wire
- Greenery, foliage
- Water tubes or Ecofresh bouquet sleeves
Step 1: Prepare your base
Start by holding your beam in your bucket, so it sticks upright. Have somebody else fill the bucket with rocks until it does not move on its own. We used a mixture of garden stones and pea gravel.
Next is adding your chicken wire. We zip tied the chicken wire onto the base, but you certainly can use bind wire or staples. We chose to not staple these on because the beam we used is actually the support beam to an arch. Should look something like what we have pictured below.
Step 2: Transport
While it might seem tricky, I promise that transport is a breeze. You just simply take out the beam from the bucket, then get it to your venue. Once you are ready, take your other bucket that is empty, add the beam and fill it with the rocks you had in your original bucket. That’s it. You are ready to design!
Step 3: Design!
The key to a foam-free installation like this is to know what will hold up out of water, and what will not. We used lots of lush greenery, stattice and roses. The venue was also indoors, so we were not worried about how the product would hold up. But, if you do have anything that is a more delicate product, just water tube them in or use an Ecofresh bouquet wrap.
One thing to consider when designing with chicken wire is to make sure you bend it to where you will get two points of contact with your stems. If you only get one, everything will just flop around. Alright, ready to see how we did it? O-K-A-Y!
Here is how the design turned out!
- Reed Gallagher Photography
- Reed Gallagher Photography
Want to see how the design process looked? Check out our time lapse on our Youtube Channel! (We love when you hit, “Subscribe!”