Lessons

Lesson Info

Segment 11 - Prepare to Create a Wedding Flower Centerpiece

We're going to start with a centerpiece um 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 prep er before we put stuff together and I'm going to show you what I'm going to be using um how I'm going to prep it it's going to be fun? I've got some mock 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 I know howto handle it once you bring it home from the market always have tto 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. 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 you look beautiful in this arrangement I brought some I went into my garden yesterday and I brought some roses these air my david austin rose's and I'm just I love them so much they smel...

l good and I thought I would bring it and share it with you all and have a good time um maybe I could just leave it up here actually did you say this is a mock orange? Is it is it like a variety that doesn't produce citrus but it's like you think colin? Look, I mean, I don't know exactly why they call it mock orange it smell very citrusy it doesn't definitely it's not a it's not an orange tree or anything like that it's just the name of it and it smells amazing it's beautiful klauer I brought some fuchsia from the garden as well, which I think will 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 gonna cut a little hole 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 leaves on them, so I'm just going to cut those out what does this grow um here in california it's far as I know and, um, I've seen a lot of them in the garden um in the gardens of my neighbors and they're actually they are easy to grow they get really big really quickly um I planted a couple of small ones last year they're about this big there there this thing now I'm just all of a sudden day are they like a vining bush or like a not really a vine it's it's more like bigger bush like a yeah 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 to have more flowers on them as well as more flow to them. Maybe this one would look good again the same thing you girls can start doing your own too. Yeah, 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 you said that that's something that has that extra something and you know it's that emotional transport from the outside to the inside exactly. I I'm always looking for waste uh got 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 gonna come over to your house and borrow uh yeah well I think what I've learned so far is that nothing is really off limits right I mean anything can kind of fit and eggs actually depending on what you're going for unless there are some that if you cut them and bring them indoors and put him in water just will to right away but there are and I haven't in my experience I haven't found anything that has been that bad um so far I'm surprised fuchsia 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 boot near one time and then I thought well you know this looks really good so why why shouldn't I use it I'll use it in my centerpiece wilted or dead leaves take them off now how is it for the students here sort of playing with now more serve not so much flowers but almost branches with flowers he's there a lot sturdier and it seemed like the gold trim yeah how was that for for all of you 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 from the smell really is wonderful that is great. Almost like a gardenia I agree yeah, 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 why I'm keeping it long because as we spoke about bouquets yesterday this too will be an asymmetrical arrangement so, um 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 you're bringing so this is the plum it's a disease or a plum? I don't believe that this tree this this type of plum actually has fruits so um 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, um I'm going to touch upon these beautiful peonies although I'll keep him in here until I want to take them out at them a little note about roses, which I didn't do it I didn't make yesterday on that is that for example, some of these have thorns on them, the ones I brought from my home and I have a little thorin remover that I used to get rid of the thorns um and I'm going to show you I can find one that has thorns you probably had the one that thor is on I think the only one in here well thank you actually didn't really know how the world 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 will be help so basically I'll before I want to prep things 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 you 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 does just makes this so much easier to work with. Can I ask you a question about that, austin? Did you I know that david austin creates beautiful varieties of roses to 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 uh there was a local nursery that I used that I went teo and I just found these and I fell in love with the way they looked and they were you know about this big we did however order bunch from david often that we planted this year and they just our bare root it's 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 uh but years or no we planted them in october no elect over sorry you can do that too but we planted them let's see february and now they're about to flower so they that's the one thing about roses that is 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 to march to them I just tried 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 the road that we just planted this year we didn't hombre 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 one better many flowers like this on one stem many buds so yeah for sure a lot of different variety um so I'm gonna put these a little bit back just I can show you something on the blackboard or the chalkboard 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 race unpacked the way I want to make it today is like this inside our base this is my a 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 whole asymmetry that we talked about yesterday 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 um sort of a um base and direction for my centerpiece okay you yesterday that you don't use floral foam yeah so is this where you create at so it's either frog in which case we don't really need a fraud because I think that this vase I can hold it um without us having a work too hard to place our branch is um in but sometimes I use a floral frog just to be able when they're shallower vases I used that teo be ableto 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 mohr, um, branches and leaves, then you sort of created this base within which you can then put your flowers. And is that the same with the trimming? I mean, we did have a question from mad lizzie, when you're when you're trimming and preparing is really the orange or you just trying to lose those dead lease or you're thinking about the shape and how you're going to create the thinking about, I'm definitely thinking about how it's going to look in the vase on how it's going to help me create my asymmetry within my arrangement at the same time show show off its beauty now, do you cant you keep in mind that there's gonna be a front today? Yes, so we're definitely there's there's a front and a back, and each direction is going to look beautiful by the time we're done with this. Okay, great! So 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 where you're looking at it from, and that seems to be important because there are 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 people I do ask, I like to know what that shape is, what the sizes, 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, uh, tall you want them to be able to talk to each other over the flowers and maybe include the flowers in the conversation? Yes, so another very important element is really taking a step back as you do each section as you do each basically go through each step is kind of taking a step back from 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 my front is 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 when you 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 gonna add a little bit a shorter branch with more white on it in the front maybe take some of the dead leaves awful so can we have a centerpiece question from mad lizzie was really interesting I'm curious about this one do you think at all about the scent when you're piecing this together now if this is gonna 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 lavender is used in food that's true so I don't know if there's a consent that you don't want with food necessarily and these to me are very uh mild so I have no problem using it I've used uh jasmine cz 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 get soiled once you've gone mirror hard to go back yes I'm curious what is it about a mirror that would help you right now well that's why you need to get up on take a walk around you look at you and you can or rodeo I don't want what it yet because it still limp it because I haven't used frog the frog or anything it's a little bit shaky, so I'm not going to touch it yet. And we, when you say frog, can you explore 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 it could hold flower 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, you know, kind of inside the pins off the floral frog so that they would stay intact. And we did have a question I know we covered yesterday, but poppy 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. Um, and, uh, friendly it's, not green, and I would rather go green e I think it's a petroleum by product. If I don't look natural, it was kind of accidentally discovered. Yeah, and then again, it goes back to the simplicity of the form. And this is a lot of what you discovered are discussed yesterday. You maybe could go more injun on to use for me the way I think of it is exactly that when you, when I make a button here, 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 it 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, um, 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. Um 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 helps. A lot of people just kind of keep things. And frog. Yeah, you could definitely use. And you could maybe use that. And it's really dies. 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. Tight it. You wrap it around your hand you stick it in a vase and you know what I could see that really working well yeah actually very natural very beautiful if you reason glass the glass vase yeah might be true you could see that for sure yeah that's the cover 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 coating there's still waste so learning howto yeah I can I definitely dio yeah my little chicken wire clouds get a lot of a lot of reuse yeah how are you guys feeling about her centerpieces right now and again feel free to get up and look from a different angle if you wanna just take another viewpoint of it from the centre here to make sure that you covered all the angles and this is just the foundation, right? Yes this's 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 foliage? Yeah. So um it's definitely going to be a yes a broad ah 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 yesterday you said to put in a bouquet the flowers from the side and in this instance, what is the difference? I am? I'm just kind of placing it where I know it's going to sit comfortably again just because I don't have much, you know, it's not very secure, yet placing it where I know it's going to kind of clicked together and stay together without dismantling like building a fire. Yes, there is that when you get all the yelling together, when birds create a nest, they keep bringing more and more and adding mohr 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, do these typically come after you've already created the bouquets or you have a workflow there? I usually create my centerpieces first because there there's just there's so many of them, and 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 overlaps but you know, in general I saved the bookcase for last because, um I want him to be as fresh as possible too when they get to the bride I have a question about your feeling about these little I have some leaves that have, you know, outdoors yeah yes and we're seeing what you're doing is you're placing it but you go back in and room 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 the planning going toe collapse? Um well, maybe I should secure it a little bit more and put some more um 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 and what do you thinking as you're arranging these so it's definitely about working with the materials you have and I feel a little envious and I look over and see how by their branches were but I ended up with some shorter branches and so I tried teo 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. If you need more, please come and take some thinking way, have plenty more. You you look like you could actually use a little bit more of the mock orange. If you're interested, I tio, please, because it was not a visual way making workshop. We're goingto teo, yeah, at our disposal. So by all means, please do take your advice and free trial. Yeah, that looks like, like a nice, nice base, just talking about the height hook 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 ableto, right, right, you don't want to tall, but but then you still want a little bit height. Just make it that, patrick.