Earlier this month we did a photo shoot at the fabulous store Digs Inside & Out in Sellwood. JJ de Sousa has a very ecclectic selection for interior decorating, as well as plants, books, candles… Check out her unique boutique! For the occasion made a couple of headpieces, a botanical stole and decorated a great metal box that JJ had in her shop.
Photography: Theresa Bear
Creative Director: Gwen Severson
Wardrobe: Wildfang
MUAH: Kelli Thomsen
Timber Press – a publishing company here in Portland, that specializes in gardening books – contacted me a year ago. Stacee explained that they wanted to publish a journal on medicinal herbs and was I interested in illustrating it? Of course the answer was a resounding yes! What an honor to be invited to participate in this project…
I had a lot of home work to do as I was not familiar with medicinal herbs at all. Talk about a very pleasant surprise: when doing research I found out that just about every plant has medicinal properties… Which meant that the sky was the limit when it came to the choices of flowers and textures that I could design with. And to make the project even sweeter, Timber Press gave me total creative license… Stacee mentioned the woodlands; I interspersed them with some botanical couture, designs with fruits and veggies and a few hand-tied bouquets. And to sweeten the experience even more, I got to choose my photographer: Theresa Bear, who sees through her lens what my eyes see, was my number 1 choice! Thank you Theresa for the magnificent pictures!
“The Herbal Recipe Keeper is a beautiful, keepsake item that allows users to record the ways in which they have used healing plants—whether as medicinal formulations or as essential oil blends. It includes space to record botanical and common names, plant descriptions, harvesting notes, preparations uses, and details on dosage and safety. Additional features include an index that will help the user easily find recipes by plant name and undated monthly calendars. With 240 color photographs and a removable belly band, The Herbal Recipe Keeper is indispensable for fans of herbal medicine and essential oils and a thoughtful gift for anyone seeking a new path to health and wellness.” Timber Press
If you would like to purchase the book, click here
It was the 7th time that I taught at Cohim last month. It was a small group this time, only 4 students, and the unusual part about it was that they all were fluent in English! First time that my lovely translator Liz didn’t have to be a go-between.
The greatly talented ladies were from Russia, Indonesia and Hong Kong. As always it was a true delight to witness what they all created!
Here is a sample of the gorgeous designs that they made during those 6 days.
Beautiful imaged from one of the photographers at Cohim,
Here is a selection of designs that I made for demos for a woodland workshop last summer.
Many thanks to Gwen Severson for the great pictures!
A few weeks ago my photographer friend Theresa Bear asked me to collaborate for a photo shoot at Heim Bakery. She just had discovered this fabulous new shop, on Sandy and Fremont in NE Portland, OR. Owner Jennifer who trained in Europe opened this gem last summer.
Models: Jennifer Splitzko and Jeri Casey
Make-up and hair: Katerina Tiley
Last this summer I had the honor to do the designs for the annual fundraiser for Literary Arts at the Portland Art Museum. I was so delighted that they invited me again! How to incorporate something that was related to books was once more an interesting and fun process. And when clients give you complete creative license, it makes it even better!
Thank you Theresa Bear for the beautiful photography!
Last year I taught a 3 day workshop in Sweden. In the fall Minna Mercke organized a wonderful workshop ( and was also the photographer) at the sublime flower/plant shop Gullvivans in Lidingo near Stockholm. One of the students, Thordis was from Iceland and she told me that she wanted to host a workshop this year. What a great experience it was this last September!
The workshop took place in at the agricultural university in Hveragerdi – about 1.5 hour south of Reykjavik. It is a geothermal area, hence there are a lot of greenhouses in the area which thrive on the inexpensive geothermal energy.
A huge thank you to Gudrun and Thordis for organizing a great workshop and to Minna for documenting it all.
Students were fabulous and super creative – check out for yourself!
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.
