Harvey

My how time flies!  I've been so busy with preparing for the holidays and closing the production of Harvey that I had the honor to be in, I have barely had time to post anything!!


Speaking of Harvey, remember this picture:

Well here is the finished product:

He was a lot of fun to make, as well as quite the challenge!  He turned out to be so heavy, that a few pieces of him fell off during the travel to the gala event.  He was a big hit though!  His head is filled with plastic water tubes and his body had floral foam inside.  His hat and bow tie were bought at a local party shop and his whiskers were made of silver Oasis wire.  He is mostly made of carnations, but there are a few chrysanthemums and mums as well as some hydrangea to give more of a textured feel to him.  His eyes  and the flower in his hand are burnt orange dahlias which are mentioned in the play.

To any of my readers who made it out to the play!  Thank you so much!

Creations

Hello readers, sorry for the lack of new posts.  I've been in rehearsals for the play Harvey and it has kept me pretty busy.  Here are a few things I've been working on lately:

The first two pictures are a garden vegetative design.  The purpose of this design is to look as natural as possible.  I created the design to be seen from every direction.  Using dried lavender, heather, decorative cabbage as well as potted stock and a succulent, I created a rock garden scene.  Once I'm ready to take it apart, I will plant the succulent and the stock in my garden.  This design would be a great gift for a friend or family member who likes to garden.

Its a bit late, but this is the Halloween design I created.  I call it "The Spooky Pumpkin Patch"  I used a light up branch that I purchased at the SF Flower Mart, attached some spiders I use for my Halloween decorations (its hard to see them, but they are there.  The orange carnation represent the "pumpkins" and I added some raffia and a skull candle for a little bit more "spooky" fun.  The container is a rectangular, plastic tray that I bought at Michaels.

Next week, I will post the before and after picture of this guy:

Using chicken wire, I created a rabbit.  I will be putting carnations, spray roses and hydrangea in water tubes and decorating the structure for the opening night gala of Crystal Springs Players Harvey.  Keep coming back to see the finished product as well as a few of the other arrangements I have donated to the production!

Dia de los Muertos

Here is an interesting article on marigolds and their significance.  Click the link to read more!

To the unfamiliar, it may be surprising that the exuberant marigold is the traditional flower for Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos, the Latin American holiday celebrated today and Wednesday.

But the pungent scent and day-glo colors of the flower are believed to guide the way for dead souls as they return to feast on their favorite foods. Its orange or yellow hues, symbolizing sun rays, are laid to light paths, cover crosses and decorate ofrendas, or home altars.

Floral Art

After a few weeks of internet issues, I am back!  Here are a few of my latest designs for your viewing pleasure!

I wanted to try something really artsy and decorative like I've seen at Bouquets to Art and other exhibits like it, so I went on the hunt for a container that "spoke" to me.  It took weeks, but after several trips to Home Goods, I found this beautiful container (which cracked as I was getting it out of my car!  It was still useable though.).  I wanted to mimic the mosaic tiles in the design with a waterfall effect.  Using chicken wire as my frame, I secured it with wire and anchored it into the container with curly willow.  I then wove the bear grass and plumosa fern to cover the chicken wire before adding mango calla lilies, red freesias, green orchids and a decorative berry.  I am very pleased with how it came out.

This bouquet was inspired by a book on manipulating leaves in floral design.  You will probably see a lot more designs with leaves folded and cut into different shapes in the near future as I practice those techniques!  I first did a bridal, round bouquet with red roses and white freesias.  I then took the bear grass and formed it around the handle to create the "tail" and taped it in place.  The ribbon is a moss ribbon I found at JoAnn's and it is secured with pins and silver Oasis Diamond Wire.  I added a few lines of the diamond wire over the bouquet as well to add some extra sparkle.  I then glued silver and red beads onto the bear grass using Oasis floral glue.  I thought it needed even more sparkle (who doesn't love more sparkle!) and place crystal lomey pins in each of the rose heads.

The next two designs are asymmetrical and vertical designs using silk flowers.

Fall Floral Festival- Triton Museum of Art

The DeYoung Museum's Bouquets to Art exhibit is one of my favorites.  I love seeing how floral professionals see and interpret works of art.  I was excited to find out that the South Bay has their own version and went to check it out this weekend at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara.  The entrance fee was a suggested donation of $5 for Sunday, and there was an event on Saturday evening that was $50/person and included a raffle and much more.  Definitely something to check out next year!

Although the event is smaller than the DeYoung exhibit, the talent featured is every bit as good as the  San Francisco designers.  I was pleasantly surprised to find a design by my good friend Poppie Rodriguez, owner of Sashay Floral.

Another designer featured was Kika Shibata, who came to College of San Mateo recently.  

These next two pieces were interpretations of the same piece of art.  I found the differences very interesting.  The first is by designer Ahou Shams and the second by Barbara Rodriquez.

Here are a few other designs that I enjoyed:

Recycle, Reduce, Reuse

During the school year, College of San Mateo's floral club (Student Accredited International Floral Designers) hosts a guest designer once a month.  This month, San Jose's Kika Shibata came in to share her inspirational designs with us.

Owner of Ikebana Arts in San Jose, Kika is a very talented and inspiring Ikebana instructor.  Ikebana is the Japanese art of floral arranging which has emphasis on the shape, line and form of flowers and leaves. In the designs below, Kika used lots of recycled products such as plastic water bottles, nail polish, plastic lids and much more.


In this design, Kika took the butcher paper that flowers are wrapped in and formed them together.  She pointed out that you don't want to spend too much time on how it looks because it needs to look like a "happy accident".  Inside the vase is grass that was dyed brown and the sunflowers are in water tubes so the arrangement isn't heavy to carry.  Berries are added to give a little more texture and color and more of the grass is used to create more energizing lines.

 This design started with a old manzanita branch which by itself was beautiful.  She wove oak, pomegranate branches, berries and grape vines into the branch and then added bright hello mums for a pop of color.

 This design was my favorite.  In a flat dish, there are three kenzans (or frogs).  The hydrangeas are used to cover the kenzans.  You can't tell from this pictures, but the hydrangeas have a touch of gold sprayed into them to give them some extra flare.  She then took umbrella plant from her garden, bent it in half and placed it in clear plastic container lids that she had melted with candles.  It really created a neat effect and had all of us "oohing" and "aahing".

This was another fun and clever design which used plastic water bottles cut into spirals and painted with the remnants of her nail polish collection.  Four red roses accented the color nicely and created a stylish but simple design, perfect for any occasion.

 In San Jose there is a neat place called RAFT or Research Area for Teaching.  People donate all sorts of random things that teachers can go and buy and create art projects with.  In this design, the tall black vase is covered with film separators that came in a bundle and Kika cut into pieces.  She then added baby's breath, silver painted leaves and a single peach rose for some color.

 This design has three curly willow branches attached together.  The red is wax coated tissue paper that is glued onto the branches.  Add a sunflower and those beautiful leaves and you have a very unique design.

In a couple weeks, I will be learning the Ikebana technique.  I only hope I can get somewhat close to the beautiful works of art Kika created for us.  She was definitely a great inspiration!

Cathedral of Flowers

The Cathedral of Flowers event in San Francisco was interesting.  I went on the Sunday  which was the last day of the event, and I wasn’t as impressed with it as I thought I would be.  There were very few designs that really caught my attention.  Here are the ones I did like:

This design was supposed to represent the ‘living waters of baptism’.  The use of monochromatic color really worked nicely and I loved the way the center looked like a fountain.

This design by Deacon Kyrill was for Our Lady of Fatima Russian Greek Catholic church.  I love the use of line with the orchids and the painted curly willow.

I have no idea how this design by Jose Tiburcio is supposed to represent St. Philip the Apostle, but I love the color play and the pave technique.

This design was fun as well.  It was to represent St. Mary Star of the Sea in Sausalito and was designed by MaryLee Bickford.  Below is a  close up of the detail work with the skeleton leaves and seashells as well as the full effect of the design.

This design was on the podium and it had a matching partner on the other side.  I was intrigued by it so I took a closer look.  The base is basically a pole that has painted twigs bound to it, then there are yellow vanda orchids spraying out with crystal garland and sunflowers at the base.  It was very stunning.

These last few pictures, I didn't record the name, but I thought they were interesting compared to the work of art they represented:

Since this was my first time attending this event, I wonder how this years festival compares to past years.  If anyone has attended, please comment and let us know!