Making Moss Letters: Personalizing with Flora
This is one of those artistic life experiences I come across once in a while, and I enjoyed it so much that I thought I would share something I learned.
My friend's wedding was coming up and she asked me to design around topiaries, fresh moss and greens. We thought the couple's initials would look good in moss, so that's where I began. Here's where we ended up:
To get there, I drew the letters on a wood 1/4" project board and cut them out with a jig saw. Then, I traced the letters onto styrofoam sheets, cut them out with a serrated knife and wrapped waterproof floral tape around. Like this:
Cut a bunch of thin floral wire into pieces about 3 inches long. Fold each piece in half like a hairpin. Lay your pieces of sheet moss (from the florist or ebay) over the styrofoam, wrapping it on the sides as well. Push the floral wire pins you made into the moss and into the styrofoam at key places to hold the moss onto your structure. When it's tight, working in sections, you can trim the excess as it wraps toward the back. Like this:
And here's the finished ampersand! Very, very fun.
I had never worked with moss before, but it turned out great. Here's the after again:
The initials were only a small piece of this project.
In fact, the wedding decor turned out so well that, combined with the bride's wonderful story and the stunning photography, it attracted the attention of a well-known wedding blog: Glamour and Grace! Go there and check it out!