Though messy to cut and trim, dry floral foam is an important material to use for unusual vessels.
Faux floral tools: (A) floral sticky clay roll; (B) safety glasses; (C) ruler; (D) floral foam tools; (E) greening pins; (F) floral scissors; (G) floral wire; (H) floral tape; (I) safety gloves; (J) wire cutters.
Faux floral tools: (K) traditional floral frog; (L) twine; (M) hairpin frog; (N) chicken wire; (O) floral tape; (P) dry floral foam.
Floral Tape
There are two main types of floral tape: clear floral tape and floral stem tape. Clear floral tape can be used on its own to create a grid across the mouth of your vase for arranging flowers within. It is also useful for stabilizing your mechanics (dry floral foam, chicken wire, etc.) in your vessel. Clear floral tape is essentially the same as scotch tape, but it’s packaged in a narrower roll that is versatile for floral arranging. Floral stem tape is used for holding florals together for designs that don’t include a vase or for attaching shorter stems to floral wire to lengthen them. It’s unlike most other types of tape because it needs to be stretched for the adhesive to activate. This ensures the floral tape sticks to itself but not your fingers. Floral stem tape comes in a variety of colors: green, brown, black, and white.
Clear floral tape can be used to create a stabilizing grid on the opening of your vessel.
Floral Wire
Floral wire comes in sizes ranging from the thicker 16-gauge (or 1/16" [1.3 mm]) wire to the very thin 30-gauge (or 1/30" [0.25 mm]) wire. Heavier wires that range from 16 to 20 gauges can be used to support heavy flowers and replace or lengthen stems. Floral wire from 22 to 26 gauges is considered “all purpose” and is used for attaching florals to wreaths, garlands, and other types of arrangements. Very fine wire ranging from 28 to 30 gauges is mostly used for attaching ribbons, bows, or other decorative accessories.
Floral wire is an important tool for making items like wreaths and garlands.
Greening Pins
Greening pins are also known as mossing pins, U-pins, or simply floral pins. They are used for attaching foliage such as moss, leaves, bark, or other greenery to floral foam. They are made of wire that’s similar to a paperclip, so they’re lightweight and easy to use.
Chicken Wire
Chicken wire is a type of light wire netting that can be shaped and fit into a vessel to hold the stems of a floral arrangement in place. Specialty floral mesh is coated with rubber, so the wire will not rust when it comes into contact with water. For working with faux flowers and greenery, regular chicken wire from the hardware store will work just fine.
Chicken wire easily shapes to containers to keep your florals in place.
Floral Frog
Floral frogs are made from a variety of materials like plastic, glass, or metal and are used for holding floral arrangements in place. The two types I have pictured on here are a traditional pin frog and a hairpin frog. The traditional pin frog is made of a metal base with sharp pointy wires coming up from the base. The hairpin frog is made of coated metal with looped wire (similar to a hairpin) for holding floral stems.
This is a traditional pin frog, and they add a nice vintage design element, so don’t feel like you have to cover them up.
Hot Glue Gun
A hot glue gun comes in handy when working with faux florals. You can also use it to reattach a flower head that might pop off the stem, secure florals to a wreath form, attach a piece of moss to disguise a greening pin, and much more.
Safety Glasses
When cutting floral wire, it’s a good idea to protect your eyes from any flying pieces of metal. Safety first!
I love these safety glasses! They have clear protective lenses on the sides that help keep my eyes protected from every angle.
Protective Gloves
It’s important to wear gloves when you’re handling chemicals like acrylic water. I also recommend using gloves when working with chicken wire so you can shape it without stabbing your fingers on cut ends.
Gloves are very handy when using chemicals and cutting chicken wire.
Lazy Susan
Although you can certainly craft faux floral arrangements without one, I found a simple lazy Susan made it easy to turn my arrangements as I worked on them and viewed them from all angles. Any lazy Susan will do; it doesn’t have to be fancy. To make the projects in this book, I used an inexpensive one I already had in my kitchen pantry.
Other Items
Depending on your project, you may want to have some other supplies on hand. Examples of these supplies are a sturdy pair of scissors for cutting tape or string, jute twine as a base if you’re making a garland, rulers to quickly measure your stems before cutting if precision is necessary, etc.
“Inspiration can strike in any little moment and be picked up from the smallest details.”
—Stephanie Kirby of The Blue Daisy Floral Designs, Pittsburgh, PA
Wreath Forms
If a wreath is on your project list, there are several types of wreath forms to choose from: wire, grapevine, foam, straw, or simple metal hoops.
Wire
Wire wreath forms are used as a foundation for attaching bundles of florals with floral wire. Wire wreath forms are an affordable option and are lightweight and easy to hang. Because the structure of the wreath form is so simple, it may take more florals to get a full look than with some of the other options.