THE NATURAL LOOK
I have a 'thing' about funeral flowers in cellophane. I hate it. One reason is that although a wrapped gift bouquet can look classy, I think when there are a lot of big blobs of cellophane bundles all piled up it looks tacky and resembles a pile of rubbish, but mainly its because the cellophane is often stapled or taped all over and the result is a bag of condensation with a bow. What a waste to have spent money on a funeral tribute which has almost certainly cost at least £25 often more, and not be able to see any of the flowers? Beats me. It suits a lot of florists to do this or suggest this item because its relatively easy to make and it saves time actually asking the customer what they would like instead. Sorry to the majority of florists but you know who you are!! Production line floristry sucks.
So when you ask for funeral flowers next time ask them to make a natural tied sheaf with a raffia bow. It looks classy, no steam up because there's no cellophane and you can see what you've paid for.
If they start to ask around the staff to see if anyone knows what it is or how to make one go elsewhere.
Raffia is great for using in the summer, obviously in winter or rainy days the floristry waterproof ribbon will look better but at the moment raffia looks nice and natural, complimenting a tied group of white lillies or a mixture of flowers, simple and elegant.
You need to pull a big handful of raffia off its skein and give a good shake to let any short pieces fall out,pull it through the hands to help form a fairly smooth length to work with for making a bow.
Form one loop, grip together then form another loop, tie the middle with a piece of string for the centre of the bow then wind several strands of raffia around the string and knot at the back, leave the ends so you can tie it later.
Dont worry that it looks scruffy it will look great, just smooth the bow ends and trim but not too short, about the length of the loops is the minimum.
This has been constructed in exactly the same way as in the Hand Tied Workshop except that the back is kept flat and something fairly rigid should be used not floppy so that it forms a backbone. I used a couple of desert palm leaves at the back of this one. The front lower part of the design has large folded (but not creased) Aspidistra leaves to add visual weight at the focal point at the front, this is where the bow will go.
When tying on a bow of any material, always tie to the back then bring the ends to the front tie under the bow then bring the ends up to the bow top under the loops and knot there, under the centre at the front so the knot is hidden. Another pet hate is a big knot and cut ends at the back of a tied item, it looks unprofessional, little neat details are important.
Ooops sorry about a bit of my foot in that one! If anyone has difficulty sourcing the items needed to make anything on this blog you can buy from me - just ask and I'll upload it to the shop. Ive been asked to put an email for this purpose so here it is.
Sometimes there are crazy price auctions too, there are now in fact go have a look!
ME
Say hello if you visit!! Would love to know you've dropped by, makes it worthwhile.
MichaelStMark
Pro 
Evie, I've gone all misty-eyed!
yours
Mike