floral design
Who, What, Where, When, and How
Floral Design is about the What.
What are we using today? You’ve gone out to your expansive cutting gardens and have an array of fragrant, colorful materials with which to work… what’s that you say? No? You bought a bunch of Costco flowers and are hoping for the best? All good, our friends. Either way works. Trust.
But did you know that floral design does not START with the flowers? Nope. Just as a cake doesn’t start with the icing, floral arranging begins way before the flowers themselves.
Your cake is made up in layers in careful composition. (Our cake is slumped in the kitchen, eaten with a spoon, but that is another story). Baking a good cake begins with ingredients in careful measures such that each layer complements and supports the other. To start you have the layers, right? Nope. (Have you been reading this? If you have been reading thus far, you know these are set up questions, non?) Anyway, to make a good cake (or flower arrangement — we are talking about flowers here) you begin with the ingredients… and pans. A pan and a plan, that’s what we say, with only the cat listening. We are not going to go so far back as Lil Red Hen and harvest the wheat to get going, but urge you to consider where you get your materials.
In progress 2. Locally picked and sourced flowers in a Hogarth curve arrangement.
We try to keep sustainability in mind throughout the planning and execution phases of all projects. In floral work, there are environmental considerations you may not be aware of. We recommend this TED Talk for an introduction: The Environmental Impact of Cut Flowers? Not so Rosy
Start plan
Location and purpose of flowers
Short term v longer life
Fresh v dried
Color theory (coming your way soon — watch this space)
Flower Prep
Choosing a container
Designed to hold infinite possibilities but mar the furniture nor tip over on the way to the party
Balance, structure, material
Floral foam v vase
Container prep
Greening up
Now put in a flower
For more ideas, take a look at our Floral Design and Floral Arranging DIY boards on Pinterest.
