During our recent International Teacher’s Class, Ilse gave us the task of ‘pimping-up’ a vase. The night before class I was still wracking my brain for an idea. While cleaning-up my daughter’s craft materials, I came across a sheet of craft foam and sheets of cork. At that moment inspiration came to me and I immediately had an idea for class the next day.
On seeing my refurbished vase, my youngest daughter, Isabel, begged me to let her use the craft foam in an arrangement.
She folded the foam in half and placed a peg on each side to keep it in place while cutting. She cut different width slits almost to the edge of the foam. The process of cutting the foam is similar to constructing paper lanterns.
She then twisted the cut foam and folded it into itself. For variety, she also cut the sheet of cork in a continuous square spiral.
She placed the cut foam around her chosen vase and then wove the cut sheet of cork through the foam. Once she was happy with the shape, she added a flower.
Inspired by her arrangement, I decided to play around with the craft foam and sheet of cork to create my own quick arrangement. Once finished, I was surprised at how well they fit together and very happy at having created our first ‘Oyako’ (parent and child) arrangement.