Curly pieces of bark: I love incorporating them in so many designs!
Woodland headpiece decorated with digiplexus, succulents, money plant, wire fern, seedpods of allium, acer and shrimp plant; dichlostemma, smoke bush, carpinas, boronia, mini strawberry plants,…
Photos: Ted Mishima
Model: Myranda Reese
Yesterday we did a super fun photo shoot. Ted Mishima favors doing shoots near old industrial buildings. Sisters Azelle and Delphine Chang were our fabulous models. They also are fabulous ballerinas and after the shoot they did a fun short dance while wearing the botanical headpieces – Great idea Ted!
For Azelle’s hat I used half of an 8″ pillow from Syndicate Sales and wove midillino sticks from Oasis through it to create a larger surface. It was perfect timing to harvest a lot of the elderberries from the tree in the garden – this is an absolute favorite texture, with or without the berries – I love the delicate detail that it adds to any design! The hat was decorated with coxcomb, clematis, ageratum, scabiosa, salvia, hydrangeas, blackberries, blueberries, ceropegia, asclepia pods, amaranth is, elderberries, astrantia, mini carnations, lisianthus, and snippets of ferns of @premiumgreensaustralia
Inspired by the picture of a splendid fashion hat, I was bound and determined to figure out the mechanics for this mask/ headpiece. The mask is decorated with seedpods of queen Anne’s lace and the top of the white mink protea were perfect for the eye lashes. The headpiece was decorated with dozens and dozens of deconstructed mini phalaenopsis orchids from @orchidaceaeinc and for the back I used hydrangeas and small succulents from the garden. The elderberries and tendrils from the passion vines that I grow added the perfect whimsy.
Recently I received the pictures that were taken during the 6 day workshop at Cohim in Beijing. Students made purses, headpieces, shoes, jewelry and botanical dresses as well as woodland centerpieces and bouquets, wreaths and framed designs. On the last day they worked in teams and created gorgeous woodland circular archways.
As always, the students were stellar and created stunning designs.
To make this purse I used a ‘pillow’. This new design mechanic was brought to light by Holly Chapple and is manufactured by Syndicate Sales. The pillow comes in several sizes and has so many applications: it will make it a lot easier to make arrangements in shallow vases, it is a great base for headpieces, shoulder corsages, small parasols etc… The best part about using it to make a handbag, is that the purse is not only decorative, it can hold a small wallet, keys, a phone and small make-up items. It is a game changer!
Photos and video: Gwen Severson
When Holly Chapple announced that she would host Gregor Lersch at Hope Flower Farm for the 4th time in May and that this time she also would invite guest teachers Hitomi Gilliam, Susan McCleary, Alison Ellis and me, I was beyond thrilled to be part of this event and to have the opportunity to study with Gregor Lersch again. The focus of the workshop was botanical couture for the floral couture fashion show, which benefited two pediatric cancer charities ‘Along Comes Hope‘ and ‘Team Mathias‘. Models in the fashion show were cancer survivors, ranging in age from 4 to 70.
An international group of designers attended the workshop and created an amazing array of custom flower couture. Creativity abounded and the fashion show was an incredible and emotional experience.
Heartfelt gratitude to Holly for organizing this wonderful workshop and fashion show.
Many thanks to Sarah Collier for the fantastic photos.
About 4 years ago photographer Ted Mishima and I talked about doing a photo shoot with botanical wings. Over the years the conversation came up many times, we imagined several concepts and gathered many pictures. A couple of years ago my friend Sheryl Tynes told me that she would love to collaborate on that idea. As she lives in a different state, it took us a while to move forward. Two weeks ago she came to Portland and we simply had a blast! We learned a lot in the process and used so many tubes of cold glue from Oasis to cover 3 sets of wings with gorgeous spring flowers and textures. Sheryl chose to use a lot of wispy tree ferns and and decorated the back with yellow, orange and white blooms. The 9′ wing span for Aidan’s wings were covered with chocolate brown ti leaves and my favorite burgundy spring flowers and textures. We decided to also do a woodland set – 6 foot long moss covered branches made for perfect wings and were attached to bark shoulder pads.
Models Aidan Burns and Azelle Chang, who both are accomplished ballet dancers, were the perfect models. Ted Mishima did his usual magic with the camera and we were so appreciative that Jamie Bosworth took behind the scenes images while we were setting up.
And a huge thank you to Sheryl – I could not have done this project without you. This was collaboration at it’s best and we plan on teaming up for more ideas in the future!
A year ago the River Oaks Garden Club in Houston invited me to do a presentation on Woodlands & Botanical Couture and teach a jewelry workshop. I was very excited and honored to have this opportunity to share a lot of information with the members of this Garden Club -which dates back to 1927 and was admitted into the Garden Club of America 9 years later.
Late morning I arrived in Houston and after a delicious lunch we went to Mayesh where we bought a fantastic selection of flowers and textures.The next morning I did a power point presentation and in the afternoon about 20 members came to class to learn mechanics of botanical jewelry. They created beautiful rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings.
Thank you Oasis for your generous sponsorship and thank you Maudie for taking some of these pictures!
Earlier this month my friend Gwen suggested that we do a photo shoot at one of the greenhouses at Portland Nursery on Division. It was a great alternative to shooting outside as it was drizzly and quite cold. I had made some necklaces and we played around using them as hairpieces also. Our model Christina’s amazing curly hair totally made that easy.
The magical spring flowers: fritallaria, hellebore, muscari and pieris, along with succulents and other textures were such perfect ingredients – and yes, the mini phalaenopsis are another favorite to make the jewely.
Thank you Christina Provincio (@lilbean77) for modeling and Gwen Severson(@botanicallyinspired) for the great pictures!
A few weeks ago Brannan Street Wholesale Florist in San Francisco hosted a 2 day botanical couture workshop. It was the first time that I taught a botanical dress and jewelry class and the results were fantastic! Using wire mesh from Smithers-Oasis, students worked in teams to design each dress, as it is such a time consuming project. Here are some of the unique and diverse designs that they made!
Thank you Elisa Cicinelli for the fabulous pictures!
design: Mindy and Mary Ellen
For quite a while I have wanted to design a woodland arrangement within a frame – I finally found the perfect structure at an art supply store in the neighborhood. They come in many different square and rectangular sizes. Artist and Craftsman Supply is a fascinating employee owned store where I have spent many, many hours in the last 2 months – and I don’t even draw or paint. So many interesting supplies that can be used in design – I am beyond excited that this fabulous store is within walking distance from where I live.
But I regressed…Originally the framed designs were intended to be wall hangings. I figured out how to secure pieces of wood or small terra cotta pots into the frame and design the rest of the space. While we were doing the photo shoot, the photographer suggested that they would also make great centerpieces and she was so right!
Thank you Gwen Severson with @botanicallyinspired for capturing these images at the beautiful venue Tendue.
