Myrtles, Milk Glass, and Martha

Martha Stewart's "Living" magazine is the only one I subscribe to that I never tear the pages out and I never throw it away.  To me, it has timeless and great ideas. 

 One idea that I saw that was "do-able" for me was this arrangement. 

Martha ( I know it's not really Martha herself coming up with these ideas and executing them but we'll just pretend) used lilacs in her arrangement.

 It is too hot down in the deep South to grow lilacs but we do have an abundance of crepe myrtles which have a similar shaped flower.

Here is my attempt to copy Martha's lilac arrangement.

Martha's holder looks like it is made with a milk glass vase and bowl.

I think she has a huge collection of milk glass but I have none.

Actually, I don't really know what "milk glass" is.

If it is glass and it is white, I assume it is milk glass but I thought I would look it up to educate myself a little on that subject.

Here's what I found out:

Milk Glass was first made in Venice in the 16th century.  The Venetians made the glass opaque or translucent in several different colors including white.  The white color is achieved through the addition of tin oxide or bone ash.  The name "milk glass" is a relatively recent name for the glass which is blown or pressed into a wide variety of shapes.

I can't blow or press glass and I don't have tin oxide or bone ash

so I went the cheap route and found a plastic vase and a glass bowl at the Dollar Tree that I thought would be compatable in size for this project.

I just love these little plastic vases in the floral section at Dollar Tree. 

They look so much like cut crystal.

Here's a look also at the glass bowl before it is painted.

To try to replicate the milk glass look, the bowl and vase got spray painted.

I used white appliance spray paint from Wal-Mart.  It was about $4/can...I thought it would probably hold up better to the water the vase and bowl would encounter.  Wal-Mart also has a white gloss spray paint for $1/can that would work also if you are on a tighter budget for this project.

After being spray painted

Martha's instructions said to use floral clay to secure the vase in the bowl. 

The floral clay came from Michael's in the floral section.  It is about $1.50 per pack.  To use floral clay you pinch off a small amount, make a roll and stick it under the edge of the vase before adding foam or water to the bowl.  I personally thought that the foam held the vase in place enough that you would not really need the floral clay.

You will need the floral foam made for fresh flowers. The floral foam comes in different shapes but the most common is this "brick" shape.

You can find floral foam at any major craft store. This usually comes in a pack of 3 or 4. Each brick comes out to about $1 each if you use a store coupon. "Oasis" is a specific brand name of this type foam but lots of people call all fresh floral foam by that name...kinda like "Kleenex" or "Band-Aid" or "Vaseline" are used.  Be sure you do not get the foam that says it is for silk or dried flowers

  One "brick" will be enough for 3 of these arrangements.   Cut the foam into 10 chunks.  Use 3 per arrangement and split the last one into 3 pieces to go into the vases.

The foam cuts very easily even with a regular dinner knife.

Soak the foam according to the package directions.

This is the foam just seconds after being dropped in the water.  Be sure your water container is deep enough to completely cover the foam after it sinks down into the water.  I like to leave it in the water at least 5 minutes to make sure it gets soaked to its center.

After the foam is soaked all the way through, put 3 of the larger chunks into each bowl.
Cut some of the flowers' stems to about 2".

Push the short stems into the foam in the bowl.
If needed, angle the flowers to get good coverage and to have them look nice around the edge of the bowl.

You may need to add small pieces of flowers around the larger flowers in the bowl to completely cover up the foam so that it does not show.  The foam in the vase helps to hold the longer stems upright. 

Leave longer stems on some of the flowers to put in the vase part of the arrangement.  It will help to have water in the vase and the bowl so the foam can continue to soak up water as needed.

Since this arrangement is not very big, I made three of them for more impact with the few crepe myrtle flowers still blooming in the yard.

Just for fun, I wanted to see if this vase/bowl set up would work with other types of flowers.  I had a few daisies I tried it with.

I thought it looked cute.  You would need to use greenery to cover up the foam in the bowl.

So, I'm doing the best I can with what I got but
here's Martha's original magazine photo:

And here is my copy cat version:

Martha has her wine and lilacs, I have my mint julep and crepe myrtles. 

I am linking this post up to
"Debbie Doos Blabbing and Blogging" Magazine Copy Cat Challenge
http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/2011/09/magazine-copy-cat-challengelets-get-it.html