European Floral Design Class

Yesterday was the first day in a long time that I was feeling well enough to sit at the computer for any length of time. Thank you for your kind well wishes - they made me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside.

The portfolio for my European Floral Design class is due tomorrow. You've already seen the sushi flowers and the pumpkin arrangement, and you've seen my midterm, here's a sampling of other designs we did. The design you see above was one of my favorites. We made an armature of salt cedar branches for the base of this bouquet. Here's a closer look at the "skeleton" of this design:

I still have the armature and I can use it over and over again.

Here is a wreath we made. It is meant to feel like a bird's nest, created with found items.

Here is our class listening to our instructor's critique:

This one is mine:

This fan design is a quick and easy design that requires only a few flowers.

I would like to thank our wonderful instructor, Wendy Pine, for another great class. The College of San Mateo is suffering horrendous budget cuts and the floristry program is in grave danger of being eliminated. It would be a huge loss to the community if we lose this important program that gives students practical, professional training.

Pumpkin Arrangements

I saw in our syllabus for European Floristry class at College of San Mateo that we were to bring a large hollowed-out pumpkin to class. I bought my pumpkin for a pumpkin display on my front porch before our instructor, Wendy Pine, told us that we should bring a medium-sized pumpkin instead a large one.  Due to an e-mail mix-up, I did not get the message that we were also to bring branches and bark to class. Fortunately Tracy, my floral partner-in-crime, tipped me off and I rustled up some just outside our classroom. Though my arrangement turned out okay…

Tracy suggested that I add more floral materials to bring. The arrangement was a little short, given the optical weight of the pumpkin, and the back did not have as much visual interest as the front:

Since I was hosting book club the next evening, and I needed an arrangement with all-around visual interest, I decided to follow her advice. The taller filbert branch from my yard added a more proper height and millet grass with pheasant feathers left over from here added width.

I am overjoyed to report that the very shy Michael Jackson just gave me permission to let you know that he resurrected himself just to come to book club at my house. Here's proof:

Eat your heart out, National Enquirer!

Since everyone at book club enjoyed the pumpkin so much, I decided to make more for gifts. This one had a more ikebana feel to it:

I planned to make one more using a green ironbark pumpkin, but some kids stole it from our front porch on Halloween night. I looked for its remains alongside the other smashed pumpkins on our street, but there was no trace of it. Note to self: bring pumpkins inside next Halloween night.

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.

Della Robbia

A couple of weeks ago, we were invited to dinner at Karen Dunn and Dan Rusanowsky’s house. I always look for excuses to play with flowers so I asked if I could bring flowers. I called my very talented friend, Tracy Lou, who also loves flowers. Tracy and I met in the beginning floristry class at College of San Mateo. I have only taken three classes there; Tracy has taken many more and is a far better florist than I am. She also has a great sense of style.

The usual scenario is that I get a big idea in my head, I call Tracy to brainstorm, and then I go to the San Francisco Flower Mart for materials. I love working with Tracy because we have so much in common. We are both software developers, though I retired from the profession ten years ago, and we both have at least one Chinese parent. We crack up whenever we use computer terms to describe an idea, and we love quoting our talented teacher, Wendy Pine. Tracy is the one who reigns in my ideas and makes sure we get to completion. I always love the results when I work with Tracy.

This was the first time to Karen and Dan’s house but I knew that they loved Italy and that they travel there often. I decided we needed to make a Della Robbia arrangement in a footed container. Della Robbia is the fancy Italian term for arrangements made with fruit. We have never made an arrangement like this before but I am pleased with the results.

Karen set a gorgeous table and I think the flowers blended in very well:

The evening was filled with stimulating conversation , great food and wine, and new friendships. Thank you Karen and Dan, you were fantastic hosts! And thank you, Tracy, you’re the best!