Earlier this week I wrote a post on how to design a fascinator with pipe cleaners. I wanted to elaborate on a method that allows to keep any design – with no water source, such as flower crowns, corsages, boutonniers, masks, headpieces, etc…- hydrated for 5 days or even longer.

Two years ago I attended a workshop taught by the magical German designer Gregor Lersch. We learned how to create a hydration chamber for designs that had no water source.

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Small fascinators are fun alternatives to flower crowns. There are many different ways that they can be designed. Recently I explored how to make the base with pipe cleaners.

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One of the local growers at the Portland Flower Market is a fantastic hybridizer for phalaenopsis orchids. Orchidaceae is located in Walla Walla, WA and we are so lucky that they sell a large selection of their gorgeous orchid plants here. Every year in the summer they have an excess of blooming plants; we benefit from being able to buy bunches of their magnificent orchids. I took advantage of this opportunity to design this orchid headpiece, fascinator and earrings.

It was another fabulous collaboration with photographer Theresa Bear, stylist Gwen Severson and model Sarah Jane Dillon.

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Spring flowers are such favorites! Love using the flowers and textures from the local growers. Here are some samples!

I made these during the confinement weeks – so we could not get models to wear them. I would drop them off at Theresa Bear ‘s  porch and we would visit, while social distancing. After I left, she photographed them in her beautiful studio.

Thank you  my friend for these exquisite pictures!

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A few weeks ago we did a photo shoot in my garden with photographer Ted Mishima and model Azelle Chang. It was the first time in many months that we got together to collaborate and it was such a treat to be working together again.

A couple of years ago I had seen a picture of a beautiful delicate fascinator that was designed by a talented jeweler. I was intrigued by the shape and figured out how to create the base and then decorated it with delicate birds nest ferns, pansies, violas, blossoms of allium christophii, blueberries and ripsalis.

It was delightful to wrap the long scarf,made with midollino sticks and bind wire and decorated with delicate botanicals, in so many different ways. We loved all the different options!

The mask/headpiece was decorated with gorgeous clematis, pansies  columbines and many seasonal textures.

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It all started with an idea to decorate a wine bottle; the base was kinesio tape; many small textures and a few flowers were glued onto it. It was easy to pull the tape off the bottle and adhere it first to a shoe and then to a piece of fruit. And of course, the options are endless!

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Thank you Ted Mishima for the beautiful pictures and Azelle Chang for being a fabulous model!

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Photographer Theresa Bear came up with the idea of doing a photo shoot, representing women of several races to have ‘a seat at the table’.

She gathered these wonderful models and we did a fabulous shoot in Minneapolis.

Gwen Severson and I designed these woodland  designs, using the fabulous bark that we harvested from her dad’s farm in Wisconsin

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The parents of my friend Gwen own a farm and several hundreds of acres of forest in Wisconsin. We visited them and took advantage of this beautiful setting to do a fun photo shoot. Our friend Theresa was our fabulous photographer.

Thank you to models Jessica Ecker and Sydney Severson

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This month it was the 9th time that I taught a 6 day workshop at Cohim in Beijing. Once again, the students displayed incredible talent and creativity. As always, pictures speak louder than words….

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