Letter Floral Tributes

[treen]

Talking of sculpting.......

Wow that is really spectacular Treen.

Might I ask how much you charged for that?

I *think* that sculpting sheet to be quite costly here.

I charge £40 per letter for the GRAN/ROSEMARY type letter tributes. Too cheap probably ....... I think I'll put them up a bit as they do seem to be popular

"TALKING OF SCULPTING" .......... the 3D tributes really do take a lot of work. I have attached couple of pics of the sculpt for the 3D dog.....I always make a little prototype model before I start chopping away at the mega block. You can see it in one of the pics:icon15

 

[twiggy]

do you use anything to support the oaisis like chicken wire or tape before adding the flowers? Do you attach it to the cushin? (as shown in the finished picture)
I can just imagine myself doing something like that, and then trying to move it and the head falls off or something!

 

[treen]

do you use anything to support the oaisis like chicken wire or tape before adding the flowers? Do you attach it to the cushin? (as shown in the finished picture)
I can just imagine myself doing something like that, and then trying to move it and the head falls off or something!

I have never found the need for chicken wire. As long as the oasis isn't over soaked I've never found this a problem. I am a real stickler for mechanics! If I join blocks I use 5mm wooden dowels pushed through each piece at odd angels and then hot glued at the join. To join the piece to the base board I use the same method (sorry no pics)....... wooden dowels glued into the board then IMPALED deep into the oasis model. I've never had a decapitation yet:sofa: (that was the most appropriate smiley I could find:Ikeico

 

[Tracy D'Amico]

Treen - thank you so much for posting some "how to" pics - it also looks like you "trim" the flowers into shape? Is that how you get those terrific angles and sharp division? You really achieve a great shape, and trimming is something I would not have considered for flowers. I've trimmed greenery into shape, but never thought about cutting flowers for the same effect.

Really great stuff!
tracy

 

[Ruscus]

If I join blocks I use 5mm wooden dowels pushed through each piece at odd angels and then hot glued at the join. To join the piece to the base board I use the same method (sorry no pics)....... wooden dowels glued into the board then IMPALED deep into the oasis model.

A few months ago I had a customer who wanted a digital camera to match the one her father used. This was made up of 3 layers of designer sheet plus a few other bits. these were all fixed together using plant sticks then glued at each end.
As for cutting xant to shape. Why not, if I need a straight line then I trim it.
like you Treen I also used the PC to scale up a design.

 

[Tracy D'Amico]

As I said in the previous post I haven't used the Styrofoam product you use in the US. I cant imagine that it would be any heavier than the Oasis Foam we use here.

Just for an example - a 24" Solid Oasis heart wreath, wet and made with pom pons and greenery etc, can easily weighs 25-35 pounds, or 11-16 kilograms.

A stryofoam heart, made the same, with a small piece of wet oasis for the "break" or central spray in a solid heart typically weighs less than 15 pounds, or 7 kilo. Our funeral directors routinely moan when we use the oasis wet foam hearts & forms - telling they use them as exercise weights between vieiwings.

As for partially wetting the oasis foam, I've never tried it since I was strongly cautioned that dry foam will wick moisture from the flower, hastening its wilting .... could be an experiment on the bench!

 

[Twila]

Treen & Ruscus,

thanks so much for sharing these inspirational designs! I would love to be able to offer these to my customers. You have definately given us all lots to think about and expand upon.

 

[treen]

Treen & Ruscus,

thanks so much for sharing these inspirational designs! I would love to be able to offer these to my customers. You have definately given us all lots to think about and expand upon.

It's a pleasure!
I would be happy to run through the steps on the Dart Board and the Double Base at some time. They cover a lot of the basic methods I use to do these tributes. Not sure if it would be better to start a blog ..... advice on that would be good ...... I've never done a BLOG before.

I think I'm gonna be busy for a couple of weeks. I've been really lucky and landed myself a new contract with a chain of funeral directors and they're running me ragged (they have 8 branches). I'm not complaining but I have 2 girls off on holiday this week and another one next week.HAPPY DAYS!

I'll catch up here when I can

 

[treen]

As for cutting xant to shape. Why not, if I need a straight line then I trim it.
like you Treen I also used the PC to scale up a design.

The PC is great for scaling images ..... I used to do this with a good old fashion ruler but the PC saves a lot of time and really helps to get proportions spot on!

I do trim the flowers ....... quite drastically at times......I have been presented with the argument that this effects the lasting quality but I think thats BALDERDASH! If we can feather carnations we can sure as hell trim a few petals to create a neater design. I have attached a couple of pics of the DART Board in progress, this shows a good example of the effects you can achieve by trimming the petals.

 

[Tracy D'Amico]

A little more picking of your brains - what type of program on the computer do you use for mocking up these designs?

Another issue our store usually has, is that frequently there is very short notice for funerals. Customers will come in or call to place their order one or two days ahead, and it's not enough time to have nice fluffy open product to work with. We usually order at least 50% more than I think we'll need, just to have enough open flowers to make these types of designs. In the UK & Europe, do you usually have a little more time for planning these funeral florals, and product development?

And one more thing - the lasting quality was a discussion here also - the cutting doesn't hasten browning on those cut petals?

I can't wait for our next piece like this, so I can try out some of your techniques - thank you again for sharing the ideas, and of course the how-tos!

tracy

 

[Ruscus]

Tracy
I expect Treen will reply at some point but in the meantime here are a few tip from my end.
The software I use for Funeral work is Microsoft Publisher 2000 and Adobe Photoshop Elements.
Various ways of getting the image to the size you need, here are a couple of methods.
Start with an image of the item you want to copy, this may be scanned in from a photo your customer has given you. or from the web.

method 1.
using the graphics package erase most of the image just leave the outline and any details you need. the more you can remove the less ink you we end up using.
save the image as a j peg. Then using MS publisher set the custom paper size to the size of you finished designer sheet lets say 30" * 20".
place the image on to the publisher sheet then using the corner so that both edges increase at the same time drag the image out till it fills the publisher area.
You now have a scaled image the size you wanted. set your printer to draft since you don't want to use a lot of ink and you only need the outline.
print it out . It will be printed onto a number of A4 pages or A3 if you have a large printer. join these together lay over designer sheet and use a pin to mark the outline onto base.

Method 2.
If you have a graphics tablet and pen . open image in Adobe create a new layer. Then draw around the image so you have the details you want. save just the outline layer as a j peg then follow above.


Most of the larger items are purchase by the family so we normally get a few days notice. If we want to make the tribute on a wire frame these day we need 3 or 4 days to get the frame made.
As for the petals going brown when cut, I have not noticed this but a lot of the time the xants are spray painted so you would not see this anyway.

 

[treen]

Sorry ... and thanks Ruscus

THANKS RUSCUS!!

I'm really glad Ruscus was good enough to fill you in .........

I use an Apple Mac computer so I wouldn't have been able to give you the PC version......... it works the same but as with all things techy is much, much easier with a Mac:ryan:

I have never had a problem with the flowers suffering after being trimmed. I make a point of using a really clean, sharp pair of scissors to do it but it isn't crucial.

Bench test it ......... you'll be surprised.

We are quite lucky with the amount of notice we get for these types of tributes. Most funerals are arranged a week to 10 days in advance so there's generally plenty of time to get prepared.

 

[Tracy D'Amico]

Thank you both Treen & Ruscus for the very specific how-to's!! Yesterday we made a Maltese/Firefighter's cross for a local firefighter's funeral. (pic attached)

The cutting technique made a WORLD of difference in definition of those corners, and we were so much more able to keep the shape. It's still a BIG leap for us to get to the quality of design in your spectacular pieces, but your direction really helped me visualize the process! The scaling on the computer helped tremendously as well - keeping scale and shape in large shapes is a challenge for me, but with the ideas shared here I feel much more encouraged to take on these special designs.

:yourock:

 

[Twila]

Great job Traciepieface!!! Thanks for sharing it with us.:nod:

 

[treen]

Really Pleased!

I am so pleased the tips helped!!

The tribute is superb and I'm sure the family and station colleagues were delighted!

The scaling is a bit challenging at first but it is worth practicing with your computer. You can do this scaling in MS Word ..... when I get the time I will try and step you through it ......... once mastered you'll never be phased by this sort of thing again.

I've been very busy over the past month so I haven't had the time to socialize here but I always try to respond to those who inquire about specific techniques.

 

[Ruscus]

I am pleased you found our ideas from over this side of help.
Well done it looks nice.

You may find these two links of interest they are to for the Val Spicer & Oasis sites in this country showing the range of ready made frames available.
Some are better than others! but can be a good starting point to then add to.

http://www.valspicer.co.uk/store/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=14

http://www.smithersoasis.com/uk/flo...AMES%AE+Products&subcat=&prodid=&div=F&full=0