Books of February

All About Floristry

These are books which I got yesterday. Every month I buy 10 to 20 books. This month I purchase at Amazon.jp. They were shipped from Japan. That's why this time is Japanese only: Left books are about Ikenobo Ikebana. And right side books are about colour.

In-house competition- Easter arrangements.

At Writtle college on 26 Feb 2015, an in-house competition was hold. The theme was Easter spring. We are expected to make bouquets or arrangements with yellow and blue colours.

The competitors were Higher Education(HE) students with Level 4 and 5. I am a fist year student at level 4. Awards were given to 3 people: 1st place for 1st year, 1st place for 2nd year and a person voted by public.

Here is my work. The idea was to hang up eggs which were stuffed with snowdrops. I reckon I should have put more yellow flowers around the cage.

The theme is Easter Spring.

hanged eggs.

Bird's nest at the bottom.

Spring and vegetative

Vegetative arrangement

Before a spring has come, we made a spring arrangement. Materials were really colourful with yellow and bit of blue. Twigs tell us like birth of new life.

'B' by carnations

'B' letter

 'B' letter arrangement with carnations.

We can't kill carnations. They are flowers of king. They are tough enough to put on oasis foam. Cutting very shortly, Just insert the stem into foam. Bent leaves show both front and back side, adding some interesting background.

Used:

• 18 white carnations
• 30 leaves of salal 
• 1 piece of oasis foam

Iris

Iris 'katharine hodgkin'

Today morning, I found an eye-catching flower around entrance of Writtle College. With my bike suspending, I took the picture. The name is
Iris 'katharine hodgkin' (Reticulata Group)

Very tiny bulb plant. A contrast of blue and yellow is quite rare in the nature. As you see below, the yellow colour is rather strong.

Identifying 5 colours

5 points on colour wheel

Adobe Colour-good application to explore right colours

application for iPhone.

I advise you to use 'Adobe Colour' application. It allows you to detect exact colours of photos. I, personally, use it to get a theme colour of bouquets which I made. A picture below shows how it works.

identifying colours

In the picture, you get 5 colours on the display. You can choose any points on the picture.

This is fantastic to know objective impression of colours.

Vanda Orhicd after 2 weeks

It took 2 weeks after I got the flower. I have put it into water. With time passing, it turn into brown colour on the petals. Purple still can be seen on the top pearl just a little bit.

I did not expect it would be like that. The fading process is mystery of the nature. And it is beautiful. I love it.

Arrangement- Aspidistra Cross

Aspidistra Cross

College' class. Funeral design featuring aspidistra. A key is to fold them and attache onto cross-shape oasis rather than wrap it up. Because it adds 3-D impacts.

Materials

Cover the base oasis by foliage

Classmates' works

Arrangement- Asymmetrical L shape

Asymmetrical L shape 

Visual balance is vital.

An asymmetrical L shape arrangement. To achieve not symmetrical design, visual balance must be carefully thought.

Outline by ruscus

Outline by gyp

Identify Visual weight

Outline- Visual weight line=focal line

4 aqua roses makes an arched curve, which can be interpreted as a "visual weight line". The line is slightly off centre, which is showed an vertical line from the top corner.

Lines

Composition- copying the focal line

As the "visual weight line" is oriented from the top corner, it is natural to follow it in terms of composition. I made 3 lines in total. One is the visual weight line. In other word, it might be a focal line too. Second is a line with lisianthus. Final one is by carnations.

Materials

<Flowers>

• Rosa: 5 stems
• Lisianthus: 2 stems
• Dianthus: 5 stems

<Filler>

• Ruscus racemosa
• Gypsophila 'Million Star'
• Eucalyptus parvfolia
• Gaultheria shaloon

Book- Bloomsbury

 I bought 2 books of Bloomsbury Flowers. It guides how to make great use of natural materials while keeping simple. Especially it shows a variety of use of vases. Absolutely fabulous.

Arrangement- skimmia

A stuffed bag with skimmias. Bushy shrubs have got nice texture, are't they? I love the spiky leaves. It can be used for filler around white roses in a bouquet.

Flowers on hair

My friend tried flowers on hair. Pretty, aren't they?

Arrangement- posy

A posy arrangement with seasonal foliage. Almost all of them were picked up at Writtle College.

I reckon this is a bad example. The design failed to be in harmony. That is because added to much sorts of materials and techniques.

Hessian cloth adds texture

A petal on a beetle weed

It might be true that 'less is more.'

UK floristry competitions 2015

Competitions are something you can be inspired. The following shows a 2015 schedule.

25       Jan      RHS Chelsea heat

27-30 Jan      IPM Essen

5          Feb      RHS Chelsea heat

22       Feb      RHS Chelsea heat

7-10    Mar     International Bridal Design Seminar

23-26 Apr      Harrogate Flower Show (Spring)

25       Apr      Kukenhof Flower Parade

19-23 May     RHS Chelsea Flower Show

27-28 May     The Suffolk Show

11-13 Jun      Fleurop-Interflora Word Cup of Florists

15-19 Jun      British Flowers Week 2015

19-21 Jun      Blenheim Palace Flower Show        

21-23 Jun      Fusion Flowers Summer School

30Jun-5Jul     RHS Hampton Court

10-12 July     Kent Country Show

17-19 July     National Flower Show

25-26 July     RHS Tatton Park Flower Show

29       July     The 134^th Sandringham Flower Show

7-8      Aug     RHS Taunton Flower Show

18-20 Aug     Harrogate Flower Show (Autumn)

20-23 Aug     Southport Flower Show

21-23 Aug     The BFA European Flower School 2015

17-18 Oct      BFA FLEUREX

How to make a hand tied with just 3 roses.

Flowers are ripping off around Valentine's day. A bouquet is over 50 pounds and one stem of rose cost 5 pounds. How can we be money wise? I advise you to buy just 3 roses at a flower shop. By collecting plants at a park or a garden, you can make a natural hand tied.

You would like red materials for Valentine's day. On February, skimmia and rose hip have a lovely red colour. Just pick them up.

All materials but red roses were collected at Writtle College.

• Rose: 3 stems
• Skimmia: 6 stems
• Rose hip: 3 stems
• Foliage: 6 stems
• Dried foliage: 3 stems

Skimmia japonica 'Rubella'

Rosa Summer wine 'Korizont'

Artemisia absinthium 'Lambrook Mist'

Valentine's day in London

Here are some picture of London florists.

• M&S
• The Isles of Flowers
• Jane Packer
• Judith Blacklock Flower School
• Fortnum Mason

M&S sells a stem of rose at 6 pounds. On the other hand, Sainsbury offers a stem at 5 pounds. I think general price around Valentines day is 4 to 7 pounds. It depends on supermarkets, local florists or famous florists.

Chain florist, The Isles of Flowers at London Liverpool Street station showcase bouquets starting from 50 pounds.

Jane Packer have a fantastic display. I was astonished actually. Very neat and themed well.

I popped into Judith Blacklock Flower School and had a chat with the lovely staff. On the day there were no school. It was luck that I bumped Judith at the new covent garden market in the early morning.

Fabulous arrs at Fortnum Maison at Piccadilly circus. There were 4 at the ground floor. Red colour tells us Valentine's day is coming soon.

Checkpoints of florist career- aqua pack

Are you a florist or thinking to be? If so, when was/will be your breaking point?



Some stages:

1. Bump into the industry/ start to love it.
2. Get into there/ start work or school.
3. Bear with just typing up floors and changing bins.
4. Have an opportunity to make or help arrangements
5. Have an opportunity to make a hand tied.
6. Have regular role to make arrs/hand tied.
7. Get be more responsible to make them.
8. Be able to create new designs.
9. More involved into trade such as customer service.
10. Go for it...

Today I tried aqua pack for the first time in terms of commercial floristry. Why? Because today was one day before Valentine's day. The trade was so busy. And I got the chance to try.  I managed to do it. I saw the moment as a kind of a checkpoint to go further. Go for it.

How can a florist be inspired by William Morris?

William Morris was flowerholic. His great achievement is what all florists do. They get materials from the nature, arrange them and showcase for public. He succeeded in 2 aspects.One was he could grasp how people perceive that nature. Second was he could retransformed it into more abstract but beautiful world.

He was obsessed to intercept plants and flowers in a different way. His art works have a feature in terms of form. Having had a close look at size of an above picture, you would notice that each flower and foliage is depicted simply. He transformed nature into a bit geometric world.

It is interesting  that he was desperate to make a geometric cloths while he show huge curiosity to nature. In other words, he loved both something natural and unnatural. The idea has been manifested through his works. A picture below might be one of them. It is a chair for a royal coronation.

In terms of dimension, he chose 2-D rather than 3-D. He drew plants as flat materials by making them simple. In that way,  it could be said that his crafts are abstract way of expressions.

Visit to New covent garden Market

The marked was festive enough to the upcoming event- Valentine's day. Red roses, which is on the above, have lovely colour and texture as if deep love.

 February is still good season to enjoy tulips, isn't it?