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Lesson Info

Preparing the Centerpiece

We're going to start with a centerpiece for anything pretty much, but in this case, we're imagining that it's for a wedding and we're going to start going through some of the press before we put stuff together and I'm going to show you what I'm going to be using, how I'm going to prep it it's going to be fun? I've got some mark orange over here, which is a beautiful flower that's available in springtime, and any time I can find it, I will use it it's a very delicate flower, so it's important tio know how to handle it once you bring it home from the market always have toe cut it right away and put it in water, otherwise it will die. I don't know if I mentioned, but it smells amazing too. Um, I still have some more plum, which I'm going to plumb leaves, which I'm going to use I love the color and I think it looked beautiful in this arrangement. Um, I brought some I went into my garden yesterday and I brought some roses the's air my david austin roses and I'm just I love them so much they...

smell good and I thought I would bring it and share it with you all and have a good time did you say this is a mock orange as it is it like a variety that doesn't produce citrus but it's like you're holding? Look, I mean I don't know exactly why they call it mark orange smell very citrusy it doesn't definitely it's not a it's been an orange tree or anything like that it's just the name of it and it smells amazing it's the beautiful klauer I brought some future from the garden as well, which I think we'll add that unique element that I'm always searching for in my arrangements and then we have some off course peonies that I will use as well as some run oculus and parrot tulips, which I think are just beautiful tulips are lovely no matter what, but the parrot tulips are just roughly and fun so uh I'm going to take this out of the way maybe I'll put this here and I'll start some of the prep I'll start with the mock orange I'm just going to cut a little over here in an angle there are some dried uh, portions to this stem that I don't want to show and they don't have any leads on them, so I'm just going to cut those out um here in california, as far as I know and I've seen a lot of them in the garden um and the gardens of my neighbors and they are actually they are easy to grow, they get really big really quickly um I planted a couple of small ones last year there were about this big they're they're this big now I'm just all of a sudden they are like a fighting bush or like a tree not really a vine it's it's more like a bigger bush like a like a wood that's very woody the stem it's not very easily manipulated so hee I think I want some more I like to choose the ones that are a little bit more time to have one flowers on them as well as more slow to them maybe this one would look good again the same thing you girls can start doing your own too this is really beautiful the everything that you have arranged here it just reminds me of kind of being in a garden yes in a way and he said that that's something that has that extra something and it's that emotional transport from the outside to the inside exactly I I'm always looking for waste out a little surprise element of surprise and that unexpected ah look to my arrangements have you would you ever think of using futures in your arrangement? Yeah, I just think I'm going to come over to your house and car. Yeah well, I think what I've learned from cars and nothing is really off limits, right? I mean, anything can kind of fit into exactly depending on what you're going for unless there are some that if you caught them and bring them indoors and put him in water just wilt right away but there aren't I have in my experience I haven't found anything that has been that bad um so far would be one of those flowers that would know I mean they're so beautiful and I just decided one day that I was going to take a couple I actually started using these and a boat near one time and then I thought well you know this looks really good so why why shouldn't use it tell you that in my several peace if there was will ted or dead leaves take them off how is it for the students here start playing with now it's more serve not so much flowers but almost branches with flowers is their lot sturdier and it seemed like the practical to trim yeah how is that for for all of you I like I said before I love foliage I really dio um it's even better when it has a bloom on it which is very nice one of the great things about spring as all of the all of the flowering branches yeah yeah so much available and the smell really is wonderful great so amazing almost like a gardenia snow I agree yeah wow, I couldn't help but notice you're keeping the stems pretty long yeah because I don't know you know how long I want to make my I'm going to show you in just a little bit how it's gonna work on it and why I'm keeping it long because as we spoke about bouquets, this too will be an asymmetrical arrangement. So the more we confined to you, you know, to have to use to make an arrangement like this this way, the better, and you can always cut later if you need to. All right? So you can remind us what some of these bushes are if you're bringing. So this is the plum the's air plum. I don't believe that this tree, this this type of plum, actually has fruits, so I like the way it flows and I like the color and they just look so shiny and beautiful this time of year, so it was a must in my little recipe, and I'm going to touch upon these beautiful peonies, although I'll keep him in here until I want to take them out and at them a little note about roses, for example, that some of these have thorns on them, the ones I brought from my home and I have a little thorn remover that I used to get rid of the thorns on, I'm going to show you can find one that has thorns are you probably had the one that goes on, I think, the only one that cares well thank you actually didn't really know how that works but it's really not that it's self explanatory in a way but I know that many people will benefit from seeing you actually do it I don't have one that's got lots of thorns or maybe this one would be helped so basically ill before I want to prep things um or arrange things I'll go through it all and I get thorns off and that we don't have to worry about your hands getting poked and also with when well when you put him inside the arrangement sometimes the thorns get in the way of you know they cut the leaves or just really hard to maneuver it's just makes this so much easier to work with question about me that austin did you I know the david austin creates beautiful varieties of roses do you order bulbs directly from david austin is there how do you get so these ones I actually didn't get directly from david austin I there was there was a local nursery that I used that I went to and I just found these and I fell in love with the way they looked and they were you know about this steak we did however order bunch from david austin that we planted this year and they just our bare roots about this big and they grow so fast way plan to them this big and now they are this big and full of ah beautiful oh soon blowing but years or no we planted them in october no not october sorry you can do that too but we planted them that's the february and now they're about to flower so they that's the one thing about roses that is a delicate and beautiful a cz they are they're actually pretty hardy flowers and so you don't need to water them that much you don't have to do too much to them I just try to protect them from um pests if I can yeah come in different colors oh yeah I mean, david austin has so many in fact the one that was the road that we just planted this year we did an ombre so you know, paying pinks and darker pinks and maroon so it's really beautiful yeah, they have so many different colors and they have vines they have bushes, they have ones that are just single flower or ones that are many flowers like this on one stem many buds. So yeah for sure a lot of different variety s o I'm gonna put these a little bit back just I can show you something on the blackboard or the chalk board I should say about how we're going to build it so traditionally I would say that floral design has been taught and designed like this either making flowers like this in a vase my drawing isn't as good as my floral design or like this having everything just perfectly placed inside your base unpacked the way I want to make it today is like this inside our base this is my way of doing it this is how I like to do it and of course I wanted free flowing and natural and wild, which goes back to the hole a symmetry that we talked about with bouquets and things like that ready to do it all right? So let's, start with our plum, I'll start with the shorter one, and this is how I'm just going to start creating a sort of a, um, base and direction for my centerpiece, you know you don't use for home. Yeah, so is this where you create that so it's either a frog, in which case we don't really need a fraud? Because I think that this phase can hold it without us having a work too hard to place our branches in, but sometimes I use a floral frog just to be able when they're shallower vases I used that teo be able to put in my first branch without it having without a toppling over that helps it and then the good thing is that you as you put more branches and leaves, then you've sort of created this base within which you can then put your flowers and it's the same with the trimming I mean, we did have a question from mad lizzie when you're when you're trimming and preparing its only the orange or you're just trying to lose those dead leaves or you're thinking about the shape and how you're going to create that thinking about I'm definitely thinking about how it's going to look in the bays and how it's going to help me create my asymmetry within my arrangement and at the same time show show off its beauty now do you can you keep in mind that there's going to be a front today? Yes so we're definitely there's there's a front and back and each direction is going to look beautiful by the time we're done with this. Okay, great so I this is a centerpiece? Well, it doesn't is not going to look the same from every direction it's going to look beautiful no matter what, where you're looking at it from and that seems to be important because they're all types of shaped table shapes and I know that you teo floral design for dinner party yes do you have to ask them what there's the shape is of the devil? I do ask I like to know what the shape is, what the size is, how many guests are sitting at the table on the one thing that I do keep in mind is that they're going to be sitting and talking to each other, so you don't want to make the arrangement to tall you want them to be able to talk to each other over the flowers and maybe include the flowers in the conversation? Yes, tio so another very important element is really taking a step back as you do each section as you do, each basically go through eight step is kind of taking the step back away from your arrangements to look at it and see well, where does it need mohr? Where can I add more to it? So I'm going to do that because that my front is right really over there, so I want to come and see. Well, what should I be adding here? How can I improve this unless I look at it from here? I'm not going to know, so now I know what to do. I want to go back, and I think I need a little bit more white, so I'm going to take some more from here. I don't want to cut this up yet because I might just need it later, so I'm going to add a little bit a shorter branch with more whites on it in the front, maybe take some of the dead leaves awful, so can we have a centerpiece question from mad lizzie and that's? A really interesting I'm curious about this one. Do you think it all about the scent when you're piecing this together? Now, if this is going to be on a table while somebody's eating dinner, are there certain flowers that you don't want to use because it may overpower the smell when people are eating? Um, I would say that one of the most powerful sense is lavender, but laugh under is used in food that's true, so I don't know if there's any sense that you don't want with food necessarily, and these to me are very, uh, mild ok, so I have no problem using it. I've used, uh, jasmine's for wedding in september, jasmine and they were blooming and everybody was raving about how beautiful that entire space smelled, so I guess they didn't have a problem with it, after all is good now you're getting spoiled once you've gone mirrored hard to go back. Yes, I'm curious. What is it about the mirror that would help you right now? Well, that's, what you need to get up on, take a walk around you look at you and you can or protest yeah, I don't want what it yet because it's still limpet because I haven't used frog frog or anything it's still a little bit shaky so I'm not going to touch it yet and we when you say frog can you explain what brought me I should have brought it it's a middle um about this it could be wider to surface with pins on it it's very heavy so that it could hold flout the branches and flowers and so normally you will put this inside the vase on dh you know fill it with water and then place the branches on top of you know kind of inside the pins off the floral frogs so that they would stay intact and we did have a question I'm happy hill wants to know what is the exact reason that you don't prefer not using floral well I don't find it environmentally uh happy on dh friendly um it's not green and I would rather go green e think petroleum byproduct if I don't look natural it is kind of accidentally discovered yeah and then again it goes back to the simplicity yes of the form you maybe can go more in china and to use for me the way I think of it is exactly that when you when I make a near I don't want to put too many things around it and use I just wanted to be really basic and it's the same thing with the phone or even the floral frog I haven't used in here because I just want to use a cz little as I possibly can to make this without any other without anything else but this the foam gives it kind of a stiff even though you can manipulate it easier it's still stiff because you're sticking it inside something hard and it's just not I don't find it conducive to the work of art that I want to, you know create here yes, I've used they make floral chicken wire have you ever used that? I have not but I know that it helps a lot of people just kind of keep things and instead of a frog yeah, you could definitely use and you could see you is that and it's really eyes it's a chicken wire and it's got a green coating on it so it doesn't rust exactly yeah have you ever experienced used curly willow? No tied it. You wrap it around your hand, you stick it in a vase and I know I could see that that really working? Well, yeah, actually very natural, very beautiful. If you're using glass glass these yeah might be true. You could see that for sure. Yeah that's it over that I do it when I work but I asked the chicken wire a lot, but I've thought like this doesn't strike me as particularly green either it's a plastic coding there's still waste so learning howto e and I definitely dio yeah my little chicken wear clothes get a lot of a lot of reuse yeah how are you guys feeling about your centerpieces right now and again feel free to get up and look from a different angle if you want to just take another viewpoint of it from the center here to make sure that you covered all the angles looking good and this is just the foundation, right? Yes, this is just kind of making it so that you can build around it easier now the foundation looks rather broad. Is that what you're suggesting when you're using a million u s o um it's definitely going to be a yes, a broader arrangement so that's what I wanted, I wanted it kind of wild all over the place at the same time structured so I guess I can call that a wildly structured centerpiece. Now I'm seeing the difference here between said to put in a bouquet the flowers from the side in this instance, what is the difference? I am I'm just kind of placing it where I know is going to sit comfortably again just because I don't have much, you know, it's not very secure, yet I'm placing it where I know it's going to kind of click together and stay together without um uh dismantling can use like building a fire yes, there is that when you get all the gelling together, when birds create a nest, they keep bringing more and more and adding more here and there until it's a nest and nobody's going to fall off of it. We had a question come up about the timing of when you're creating the centerpieces of duties typically come after you've already created the bouquets, or you have a work flow there, I usually create my centerpieces first, because there there's just there's so many of them on, I want to save the best for last, so I, although I think of all of them as just I love them, and I think they're beautiful, but I think that making and I also want to see what I'm left with so I can use in the end to maybe keep a little of this and that so I can use inside my bookcase that's a good point you had overlaps the aerials, but, you know, in general, I save the bookcase for last because, um, I want him to be as fresh as possible to when they get to the bride. I have a question about your feeling about these little I have some leaves that have, you know, a few doors, yeah, them yes, and we're seeing what you're doing is you're placing it but you go back in and groom yes because again I'm looking at it and I'm thinking well what's it going to look like if I put a penny over here is a pen in ghana collapse? Well maybe actually secure it a little bit more and put some more branches in here to give myself that security thank you so much yes I love the variety that we have different arrangements from the students now I'm curious to know the thought process for you guys when you're kind of building the foundation for these centerpieces that I see like some of them look a little bit bigger than others what do you thinking as you're arranging so it's definitely about working with the materials you have and I feel a little envious I look over and see how high their branches were but I ended up with some shorter branches and so I tried tio just create some drape over here I mean, this was beautiful it was hanging and I wanted to give a place for it to play and then to get the height out of the one branch between anymore please come and take something way have plenty more you you look like you could actually use a little bit more of the mock orange if you're interested tio plea because there's not a visual way but yeah, this is making workshop and yeah, yeah at our disposal. So by all means, please tio her advice and feel free to try. That looks like, like a nice, nice base, talking about the height for me. It's. Easy to get carried away and end up with something that's. Maybe, exactly, you know, but you're saying that they need to be able, right, right? You don't want to tall, but but then you still want a little bit high. Just make it that eccentric.