Eating Disorders International Conference

I had the privilege of doing event flowers for the Eating Disorders International Conference (EDIC), which was hosted by the UK charity Beat.

I know that Beat does amazing work supporting people with eating disorders, their families and carers, as well as research into the causes and treatment. They also run media campaigns to raise awareness and improve understanding of eating disorders. I was very impressed by the work they did with the British soap opera Hollyoaks a few years ago – it was the first time an eating disorder had been portrayed on television so carefully and in so much depth, from the effects on the person’s mental wellbeing to the harsh reality that eating disorders kill people.

It was wonderful to contribute something beautiful and natural to a charity that does so much good work.

I used the colours of the EDIC and Beat logos – pink and purple were quite easy to find, but naturally blue flowers that would work well was more of a challenge. The flowers also needed to last well in floral foam for the duration of the three-day conference.

In the end, I used Pacific Blue, Cool Water and Heidi roses, blue-purple and pink lisianthus, pink Asiatic lilies (which are not scented, unlike longiflorum lilies), purple bloom chrysanthemums and different kinds of eucalyptus for the two pedestals, and roses, eucalyptus, blue lisianthus and green skimmia for the long spray. I also added some ivy from the garden and decorated the pedestals with pink and blue organza, representing the pink and blue of the Beat logo.

Apparently some delegates commented on the scent of the (Pacific Blue) roses, which was noticeable when people walked into the conference room. And the organisers of the conference were happy with the arrangements.

As my first time doing event flowers for an organisation, it went pretty well. I’m happy with the arrangements I did and I really enjoyed the experience.

A big thank you to Beat, and to the people who helped me do the arrangements, including my friend Manish – a non-florist who has a natural talent for floristry!

Spring/Summer Collection 2012

As it’s Easter, I thought I’d add some photos from the past month. I’ve used lots of spring flowers – scented narcissi, irises, ranunculus and anemones, as well as pink, summery roses: huge Sorbet Avalanche spray roses and scented Auguisa Luise garden roses.

This gift posy uses florist hyacinths, paperwhites and ranunculus.

The next few pictures feature hyacinths that I’ve grown in the greenhouse. The blue is Delft Blue, the pink is Pink Pearl, the yellow is City of Haarlem, and the purple is Woodstock. They smelt gorgeous.

And here are some arrangements using City of Haarlem hyacinths, Pacific Blue roses (which are also scented), lisianthus and skimmia.

A sea of crocuses

Opposite Cadbury World in the pretty village of Bournville is a beautiful park. I went for a walk there last weekend and saw a sea of crocuses, worthy of a Wordsworth poem.

We have a little cluster by a tree in the garden, which are beautiful close up, but not quite so impressive at a distance!

Daffodils, continued

I'm snowed under with coursework and work for an event (details in due course), but here is my daffodil textured cushion, after I had added the spray of flowers on top. It had been in the fridge at college for a week, so the foliage and daffodils were not in peak condition, but I think the pink ranunculus and tiny narcissi work well. I could have used more ranunculus though, to push through the bright yellow.

Braving the elements

We’ve had a couple of mammoth coursework assignments recently, including one on the elements and principles of floral design. For this, we needed to do five drawings or paintings, using different art materials, to represent each of the five elements: colour, form, line, texture and space. I’m satisfied with my drawing for texture and my painting for form, which (I hope) show the respective elements effectively, but are pretty mediocre. However, I’m happier with my drawings for line and space and my painting for colour. The first one is a bit out of proportion – which is often a problem for me, as I’m a ‘details’ and not a ‘big picture’ sort of person! You can probably tell which picture I enjoyed doing and devoted the most time to. This was an unexpected bonus of doing a floristry course – it’s reignited my love of painting.

Judge a book by its cover

I took this photo when I visited the pop-up library in Selfridges earlier this year. As someone who studied English for as long as possible, I love books for their words; but as someone who brainstormed designs for books in my last job, I also love books for their covers. There are a few books that I have more than one copy of, simply because they have such great covers. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the main culprit.

But there are others, like J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (one of my top five books), where I nearly always see the same cover, no matter which library or bookshop I go to. There is something comforting in seeing a new copy of the book which looks exactly the same as the one I bought almost twenty years ago.

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.”

The Catcher in the Rye

Happy St David’s Day

We did some designs with daffodils this week at college, so here they are, for my Welsh friends and readers. Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!

Here we have a chair back, a topiary tree, and the beginnings of a textured cushion. There wasn’t time to do the spray of flowers on the top of the cushion…but I’ll put an ‘after’ picture next week. This design required the heart-breaking task of cutting daffodil heads in half. It felt like flower dissection.