Work Experience

Finding work experience this year for my university course has been even harder than last year. What with the current economic situation, local florists are either fully staffed or simply dont have enough work to go round. With the requirement for 400 hours to pass the module, I started to panic. However, I mustn't complain, as I have just come back from two fantastic days working alongside Paula Pryke and her very knowledgable team in her London based flower school. Although my hands are very sore and covered in spinters from binding pine to wreaths and wiring up many christmassy delights, I must say I throughly enjoyed every minute of it. Not only did I have the chance to put into practice the wiring techniques I have learnt at college, but also the oppertunity to learn new skills and head home on the train looking like a christmas tree myself . . .  covered in gold spray paint and glitter.

Autumn

Autumn leaves to me are like fast motor cars to Toad from Wind in the Willows. I just LOVE them!! The vibrancy and variety of the colours is astonishing . . . Nature really does rock . .  We mere humans stay one colour all year round ( unless you are fortunate enough to find some summer sun and then we look slightly burnt around the edges). So when the leaves fell  thick and fast in my parents garden this year, I just couldn't help but go and play  . . . I mean help sweep them up.

Simply messing about with leaves, above leaves from 3 beautiful old cooking apple trees and below . . . Beech leaves, a rich copper colour . . . from the neighbours garden (humph).

Having grown up surrounded by women who love nature and horticulture, it seemed only natural that I too would catch the gardening bug . . . and I really have, but not just gardening for pleasure but for food too. Organic, home-grown produce really is the best fresh food that you are likely to eat. . .  Every flavour is full, sweet and wholesome. The best comparison you could ever make would be between the perfectly formed tomato from the supermarket ,and the homegrown organically cared for tomato. Yes the homegrown is slightly knobbly in shape but that earthy flavour is there, with a beautiful texture . . Mr Tesco's tomato is a hard as a rock, usually unripe and tastes as flavoursome as water!! 

Autumn to me isn't just about a blaze of colour but also about foraging  . . . For as long as I can remember I have always gone blackberrying with my mother and often grandmother in tow. It became a yearly ritual amongst the woman in the family. Spending several hours on the way home, standing in nettle patches in your school uniform, trying with all your might to reach the juicy berries near the top of the bush without toppling over into the ditch below . . . well its become second nature now and its an experience I hope to share with my own children one day. Even picking the apples in the garden still gives me that excited feeling of harvesting something you have either found or grown yourself.  There is something quite elegant about the way an apple hangs in the orchard. . . one can see why Eve was tempted to the tree.

Mille Fleur

Mille Fleur designs are literally transcribed as millions or thousands of flowers. Myself, I prefer clean cut classical look with a contemporary spin when it comes to floristry. . . and  clothes, and interior design, and food for that matter. . . So mille fleur seemed a rather messy concept to me. 

I must say I wasn't too inspired by the flower choice for the task. Solidago,  purple Statice, yellow santini Chrysanths,  White Gyp, Pittosporum and pastel pink spray Diathus. However, I remembered a design created by Claire Cowling, using the mille fleur style that Id seen in her funeral tributes book. Once I had started the design in a similar fashion to Claire Cowlings' design, I began to enjoy the technique of arranging materials in that fashion.
To add a little contemporary twist and a focal area to the design, I pinned some beech twigs, stripped of their autumn leaves, in a crescent shape to mimic the never ending circular form of the tribute. It turned into quite a 'sunny' design in the end, which I think is fitting for a funeral tribute. . Funerals shouldn't have to be gloomy and sad, celebrating the chance to live life I think is the best form of send off and the flowers should reflect that.

Below are some images of another funeral tribute that I completed with two colleagues from my course.  We were asked to create a design that incorporated  set contemporary techniques. They will be given to the Year 1 group for evaluation.

• Grouping
• Caging
• Cupping

These were some of the techniques we were asked to include. We used Galax leaves to create little leaf cones. They really are the perfect shape and size for this technique and we  softly grouped all the materials. On the whole the design took on a rather traditional appearance due to material /colour choice, However, once we added a  contemporary caging feature made from pieces of steel grass, glued together in a random fashion, the tribute took on a asymmetrical form, especially with Zantedeschias sweeping across one half of the circle, and the whole design was lifted by the contrasts in texture.