Saturday, April 12, 2008

Exploration of Creativity

Ok, I have to be honest, this is the class I've been looking forward to most since deciding to come out to Portland. I have a mixture of emotions about it. I'm really excited to get to use different materials and really branch out, and I'm also really nervous for the same reasons. I feel like this class will show me if I am, in fact, creative and it will kind of sum up everything I've learned in the last couple of months. The one thing I've really struggled with during this whole experience is whether or not I'm creative enough to do it. I want to be artistic so badly!

So, there were only 3 of us in the class and it started out great! We talked about how creativity is stifled in us throughout our whole lives as we try to fit in to the rules and things we are taught. We learned how to release that baggage and talked about ways to surround ourselves in a more stimulating environment. It was actually a really cool discussion and there are a lot of things I'm going to put into practice now. Besides designing flowers, I really want to learn how to paint. I think it will help foster the growth of my creativity and will eventually help in my business. I also learned some really cool design ideas that I want to turn into art pieces for my home.

This is kabuki and these are the ones I am going to turn into art pieces. They will be slightly altered, obviously and I think they're going to look really cool.

A support system made out of aluminum wire. It turns out pretty neat.

Petaling on the ball, and tying sticks together to form a base.

Different things you can do with Lomey collars


I was really worried about the second half of the day when we got to use anything in the warehouse and design whatever we wanted and it didn't matter how many things we did or anything. Amber found some sort of sheet metal grid and made a really cool design out of it.
This was Amber's first, smaller piece that she just whipped out of a Lomey collar while she was thinking about her larger design piece.

Her finished project, which I thought was pretty cool because of the incorporation of industrial materials.

The other guy in our class did a few pieces, experimenting with different materials and techniques. Petaling on a small cardboard box. I think it looks cool because it kind of looks like a mini picket fence garden.

His wire based bouquet

His stab at the kabuki

I had kind of an idea of what I wanted to do for one of my pieces, but I had no idea it would take me all afternoon! It was a doozy, but I have to admit that I was pleased with the way it turned out. I'm still not 100% sure about my creativity level, but I am sure that I know how to foster and unleash it, and I know I just need to learn how to trust my natural abilities more too. So, all in all this was a fantastic experience and I'm so happy I did this!

It's an ikebana design made out of topiaries

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Large Scale Day Three...

Today is pretend March 28, by the way. We're on the last day of large scale design and today we're doing event work. The pieces we did today are actually really cool because we all used the same materials and each piece turned out quite differently, but they could all be placed in the same event hall and look fine. Pretty cool. Of course you would want to do something more uniform in an actual event, but it's a neat concept anyway. So, we used the cement base that we poured the other day and made 8ft bamboo decorative pieces. We used the fibonacci code again and it was a lot of fun to do these.

This is mine. It was hard to get a good picture of it because of all the others around it. I created my balance using curly willow, so it's a little bit harder to see the full dimension of it. Also...I have to say that I was quite upset at the end of the day because somebody took mine, so I didn't end up bringing this one home. It actually worked out ok because I didn't really have the room in my car. Oh well! Maybe I should be flattered that someone wanted mine!

Remember the little teepee's we made the other day? They became table centerpieces and end pieces to the table. Here's my lovely creation.

Up close. Don't really look too closely or you'll see all of my mistakes!

And this is what the table looked like as a whole when we were finished. Imagine it in an event hall, maybe as a buffet table or something. It was kind of a fun project!

So, now I am officially finished with Large Scale design and I know how to use proper mechanics when putting these types of things together. I really am convinced, after this class, that this is the area I want to focus on. I love doing wedding and special event work like this. When I go home, this is what I want to make my business into. I'm actually really excited about it now!

Large Scale Day Two...

Today (we'll pretend it's March 27) we learned about decorating different types of wedding tents - an actual wedding tent and a chuppah. We also learned about the fibonacci code and how design incorporates that. We usually do it without even thinking about it, because it has a natural feeling to the human eye. Anyway, so we were divided into teams and each team had a different theme for their wedding.

My team was the big tent and our wedding was supposed to be set in a vineyard. Everyone actually participated in covering the poles of both tent styles, and also adding some garland and finishing touches to the large tent before we divided into teams.

This is the pole my team did. Lovely, I know. It's covered in moss and curly willow.

Next, we hung garland all around the top of the tent (made of plumosa and salal), and then we added strings of grapes.

This is the finished tent before we actually added our floral pieces.

Ours was the "cake tent," so the inner back corners needed to be decorated, since that is what people would see as well as the outer front corners. I did one of the inner back corner pieces and here it is! (roses, gerbera, kermit poms, hydrangea, hibiscus berries, curly willow, salal)

I also helped with one of the front pieces, but I don't know which one it was..I think it's on the right. Anyway...this is the completely finished project.

This is our pole on the chuppah. The theme of the chuppah wedding is set in a rose garden.

This is basically what the chuppah looked like before the other team did the flowers.

The legs of the completed chuppah. Debbie did the top corner piece, but it's kind of slipping back a little because we didn't anchor them for the class.

Here is their finished project and I think it turned out beautifully. They used plumosa, salal, roses of different colors, hydrangea, and I can't remember what the little star flowers are called.

Large Scale Day One...

Okay, so let's pretend that this is March 26 and I'm not a total and complete slacker! This is the first day of Large Scale design and we didn't actually do a lot, but we learned a lot. We talked a lot about the mechanics and secrets of building really large designs, making them stable, and making them transportable. It's a lot of fun because this class is all about wedding and even work, which is what I want to get into. It's also really cool because there are a lot of things they do in large arrangements that you wouldn't think to do. Today we made and poured cement and learned how to use it. Yup. That's right! It's pretty cool.

Here is a tree we hung orchids in cute little vases on. It's just branches stuck into a cement/pvc base but it ends up looking pretty cool.

This is actually the same base but using different branches and materials for a different kind of feel.

Here is my dear friend Debbie modeling the teepee frame we made for a piece we will be finishing later this week.

This is step 1 of a 3 tiered copper pot arrangement that will eventually look like 1 piece.

Step 2

Step 3 - a beautiful polychromatic event piece that can be easily separated and transported.