Double assessment

I had a double assessment at college this week, and got a double distinction! I've made both the designs before so they should look familiar. The first design is a hand tied with an aqua pack, which my tutor said was made to a commercial standard with nice placements and a good dome shape and use of materials. I personally didn't think this design looked as good as the practice one but my tutor obviously thought it was ok and she's the professional!

The second design is a hand tied with a collar. This was assessed by a different tutor, who said my collar was stunning and the materials were evenly placed. I need to be careful with the loose wires below the binding point though. These are from the fir cones, lotus heads and sisal balls.

 

Hand tied with a collar

At college today we made two hand tied bouquets with frames - one frame was made from natural materials and the other was made from cardboard and fabric. I really like the materials we used this week - I'd seen them all before but I didn't know what some of them were called so it was good to find out! I like the fabric frame best I think - it has a greater visual impact. We have 40 minutes to make that arrangement in an assessment next week!

Wedding: week 9

This is what I made in week 9 of the wedding unit of my floristry course - a hand tied with a collar and a grass "skirt". The skirt didn't last very long because I had to put the flowers in a vase but it's a nice idea to cover the stems. Just might need to be a little bit shorter!

How far can a bunch of spray roses go?

Quite far is the answer! I bought a bunch of spray roses from Waitrose, I was looking for white but they didn't have any so I bought this amazing pink and white bunch instead. I was originally just planning to make the bouquet - I'd seen a photo in a magazine with the wire collar in a bowl shape and I wanted to try it out. Unfortunately I ran out of pink wire which is why it looks a little sparse in a few of the photos! I love the outcome though - it's probably not big enough for a bride but it would be good for a bridesmaid.

The foliage used in these is all from my mum's garden - she's planted a load of stuff just so I can use it in my arrangements, bless her.

I really enjoy making teacup arrangements so I thought that was an ideal use for some of the spare roses. I also still had some gyp from a previous arrangement so I used some of that as well. I'm not sure what the little berries are but the pink edges go perfectly with the roses!

The buttonholes were a bit of an afterthought but they meant I didn't waste any roses! I've never made a proper buttonhole before either so I thought it would be good to get some practice in before the summer when I've got my first two weddings! I may be blowing my own trumpet but I think they're pretty good for a first attempt! And I wired them all then covered them to finish them off.

Wedding: week 4

Here are the results of week 4 of the wedding unit at college, and probably my favourite design so far! I didn't enjoy it that much at the time because it was so fiddly and time consuming but it's worth it for the final result!

Floristry: Week 4

This is the result of week 4 of my floristry course - a hand tied with a collar frame.

I wasn't sure about the whole collar thing at first but I actually really like it in the final design and I can now see what an impact this makes. I covered it in pink and green floral fabric. The first photo is mine, and the second two show some of the designs from other women on my course.