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Sustainability Statement

‘Living in Singapore, a Southeast Asia country with hot and humid weather, to create a sympathy design without water sources (i.e. water tubes, foams etc) is indeed very challenging. The weather condition here simply would not allow some delicate flowers and foliage to sustain beyond a couple of hours under the hot temperature. Furthermore, the funeral services for most of the Chinese cultures/religions typically could last between 3 to 5 days. While we could choose some tropical flowers that do not require much water sources,

In this design, I tried to explore using sphagnum moss which is plant based and organic, as the alternative sources of water for the flowers. I wet the sphagnum moss using water, bundled them into a ball and tied it onto the structure. The sphagnum moss is a bit hard for some softer flower stems to go in. To solve this issue, I either tied the soft stems of the botanicals with a harder stick (e.g. bear grass), or insert a stick into the stem (e.g. calla lily) before inserting them into the moss ball.

The wreath structure is made out of cut wooden sticks. The sticks are tied together using bee-waxed string, and applied with bee-waxed to add texture to the design. As you could imagine a structure like this without using wires is not expected to be strong enough. To make the wreath structure stronger in order to hold the weight of the wet moss and the botanicals, I made two thick rattan circles (one bigger and one smaller) and attached them behind the wreath structure at two different points using bee-waxed string. I then used raffia strings to wrap around the wreath structure to reinforce the holding. This made the whole structure tighter and stronger.

Most of the botanicals were inserted into the wet moss ball for water supply. Some callas were hung outside of the structure. Their cut stems were wrapped with paper and tied with the bee-waxed string to retain their moist.’

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List of Botanicals & Supplies Used

Structure:

1. 100% organic Bee wick hemp
2. Rattan
3. dried wood sticks
4. Honey Beeswax from Happy Valley, New Zealand
5. Raffia string

Botanicals:

1. Carnation
2. Veronica
3. Calla lily
4. Safari sunset
5. bear grass
6. Heliopsis
7. Craspedia
8. Anthurium