Sympathy: Week 3

This is the result of week 3 of the sympathy unit of my floristry course, and I think my favourite design so far! The weaving was a little tricky to get the hang of at first but it looks so effective. The red fabric underneath is for when the china grass dries out and shrinks, so you can see the red through the gaps. Another reason why this design can also be used for Valentine's Day.

I also remembered to take step by step photos this week, which is good to see all the separate stages.

Tulip Rose Bouquet

I was in Tesco the other day and saw they had some really nice flowers so I got some to experiment with. I have a couple of weddings lines up already so I really wanted to practice the hand tied technique. I don't think I've quite got it perfected yet but I'm really pleased with how this came out. I need to try and get a more even, circular shape as from different angles this design looks a tad uneven.

I used roses, tulips and gypsophila, and all the foliage is from my mum's garden. The pink flower at the front is from a set that I got at a wholesalers last weekend that I was intrigued by and wanted to see how it would work in a design. I tried it with more of them before but it definitely looks better with just the one flower.

We fold over leaves quite a lot on my course so I incorporated that into the design, which I think really works and adds some nice texture.

Sympathy: Week 2

This is what I made in week 2 of the sympathy flowers unit of my course. This design would be used by grandchildren to give to a grandparent, so they could each take a section to fill with their favourite flowers. The material cost for this was £18, but my course leader says they sell for about £65 so that's a pretty good rate of return!

I was a bit sceptical about this at first, with the different colours involved, but I actually really like how it turned out. And it doesn't look depressingly funeral-y either! The freesias are starting to come out so the section between the two pinks is starting to look more purple and therefore making the whole design more even.

Wire Wrap

My wires were starting to become messy in my floristry toolbox, so my mum made me a storage wrap for them. She previously made one for her knitting needles but it works just as well for floristry wires!

I'm stitching the wire sized on myself but don't have all the wires at the moment to fill it up - looks like I'll be stocking up in the college shop tomorrow!

Sympathy: Week 1

My course at Writtle College started up again this week after the Christmas break, and this week we started the Sympathy unit. This one has the potential to be depressing but the course leader said she would try and use designs that don't look too funeral-y.

This design was quite easy to make but time consuming as there are a lot of flowers involved! Next week I'm going to try and take more step by step photos so you can see the progression, but I tend to just get caught up in what I'm doing and don't think about doing that!