Sushi Flowers

I'm enrolled in the European Floristry Class at College of San Mateo this semester. Wednesday we made an wedging armature and sushi flowers.

Instructor: Wendy Pine
Assignment: Wedging Armature. Use branches to wedge inside the container in order to create an armature.

Floral Materials Provided

• Red Dogwood branches
• 4 Aspidistra leaves
• 15 stems Alstroemeria
• 1 stem Japanese Pittosporum
• 2 stems Red River Chrysanthemums
• 1 stem Chinese Pistache berries
• Spanish moss

Supplies

• Suiban container (a shallow dish without drainage holes)
• 1 brick floral foam
• Paper-wrapped binding wire
• Double-pointed picks

Armature Notes

1. Think of a horizontal structure when designing this. Think about or draw your design up front. For this assignment, keep structure inside the container.
2. Cut branches to size where it can wedge into the container.
3. A little height is nice. (I failed on this front)
4. Okay to use binding wire to hold branches in place.
5. Flower Sushis should not more around; insert as many branches as required to hold the flowers in place.
6. Keep turning container to view arrangement from all directions.
7. Keep negative space in mind.

Flower Sushi Notes

1. Provided enough materials to make at least eight sushi wraps.
2. Slice aspidistra leaf along vein to cut the “seaweed” wrap.
3. Alternate wrapping materials that can be used:
• Hala leaf
• Magnolia leaf, both sides
• Ti leaf
• Galex leaf
• fabric
4. Cut floral foam into sushi shape. I created a cone for the handwrap.
5. Use toothpick to “stitch” Aspidistra leaf around foam.
6. Insert floral materials into foam. Looks better when you only use one material per sushi.
7. Work slowly.
8. Components should not move around container; wedge into armature.
9. Make sure that armature structure is not covered up by floral materials.
10. Cut  flowers short in order to cover as much foam as possible.