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.